China has warned its citizens about traveling to the U.S. with “highly frequent” gun violence.
The notice was issued by the Chinese Embassy in Washington, reported MSN.
The notice said robberies and burglaries were common in the United States, and warned Chinese tourists to be cautious of “suspicious” people there. “Avoid going out alone at night,” it added. “If in danger, please be calm and call 911.”
The number of Chinese tourists visiting the United States has been rising steadily, to nearly three million in 2016, up from 525,000 in 2009, according to the Department of Commerce.
A 2016 report by the Small Arms Survey, a Swiss nonprofit group, said the mortality rate for gun homicide in the United States was 31.2 deaths per million people. The only countries with higher rates were El Salvador and Mexico, with rates of 446.3 and 121.7 deaths per million people, respectively.
By contrast, the report said the risk of being killed with a gun in China — 1.6 deaths per million people — was roughly equivalent to dying in a plane crash in the United States.
