That fear is overblown due to media focus. Attacks against Asians happen, but not in numbers that should make anyone hesitant to live here. If the media publicized every vending machine that crushed someone people would be scared of them, but the reality is different

I traveled to Hong-Kong right in the middle of protests and I actually felt much safer than in the US and my home country (France), and I am a white guy. It is ironic when protesters chanted "Hong-Kong is not safe", these people probably never went to the US or Europe, let alone Africa...

I mean just look at here: https://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/compare/Hong-Kong/... Basically safer by an order of magnitude.

It is not just the media, many western countries are unacceptably unsafe relative to their wealth and that includes the US. I mean, when you have to lock a bike with a lock that is heavier and more expensive than the bike itself, there is a problem. Going to low-crime country is always a pleasure and I would understand Hong-Kongers for refusing to leave for that reason.

From what I can tell, most HKers are looking at Canada, UK or Australia. I haven't really heard anyone talking about moving to the US.

Compared to the U.S., anti-Asian sentiment is actually worse in Canada and Australia right now by some objective measures, according to a talk I attended yesterday by Dr. Russell Jeung (Asian-American Studies). He didn't mention the U.K.

That said, it makes sense that someone from a city-state that was formerly part of the british commonwealth would want to move (back) to the commonwealth.

One example: the higher education systems within the commonwealth are more interlinked and university degrees more widely recognised across borders. I'm sure there are many more benefits as well.

I had an coworker who lived in Israel. I mentioned that I’d love to visit, but was nervous due to violence/terrorism. She just snorted and said she felt the same way about coming to the US. We both realized that our fears were blown way out of proportion due to media sensationalism.

Anyway, the streets are fine.

Now, think again about what media says about the Chinese government.

I do think about it. I’ve been to China. I have many friends who spent a great deal of their lives in China. I’m not sure why you think I haven’t “thought again” about the media’s takes on China.

Also take into consideration that the biggest anti-China propaganda is coming from the one country which is afraid of being overtaken as the world's biggest economy by China.

China doesn't seem to be a big problem in any other country across the globe. Strange. It's also quite funny how so many more countries in the world are afraid of the USA, particularly those with oil reserves and other natural resources.

Please don't believe in media sensationalism. Yes, covid brought us an increase in violence, but that was simply relative to numbers that have been declining for decades. I'm not saying that we shouldn't keep improving this in the US, but it's still an extremely safe place.

Also, most of the physical violence in the US is restricted to specific cities or areas within larger cities which you should generally be able to avoid.

Regarding ethnic violence against Asians, it's even more inflated by the media. The statistics don't support the narrative of regular violence against people from Asia:

https://www.statista.com/statistics/251877/murder-victims-in...

> the US [is] still an extremely safe place.

That's incorrect, a misleading exaggeration. In any ranking about safety, it does not occupy the extreme end, but around the median or average.

It would be accurate to say that the US, in the international comparison, is at best a somewhat safe place.

Let me avoid the word "extreme" then - it doesn't make any difference to the core of the argument. One will be happy to live in a place with "very high" safety levels instead of "extreme".

I don't agree with your characterization of overall safety based on ranking positions. The US, as a few other countries, has very localized violence and that sharply skews averages. This means that it's quite possible to live in a safe area even within notoriously violent cities (which often have high violence numbers in relatively small areas).

Also, by international standards, the US has very accurate reporting and crime statistics. So while you can see a few countries with surprisingly lower violence numbers, don't assume you are comparing apples to apples in terms of how accurate these countries' statistics are.

So while it's true that in aggregate the US doesn't sit well in safety rankings, this doesn't mean that a clear majority of the country isn't extremely safe - as in the chances of you suffering violent crime being very low by international standards.

By the way - I'm not saying it's okay to have localized violence. However, it's quite possible, and easy, to enjoy very high safety levels in the US even if you are not rich (while this isn't necessarily the case if you are poor due to limitations on where you can live).

To me and hundreds of millions of others who live in actually safe places (and yes, with accurate statistics), it is mind-boggling that we would have to think about and avoid "specific cities or areas within larger cities". That's not normal. That's not '"very high" safety levels'.

If you want to improve, then you first have to admit to the problem and not make excuses.

I was taught to always compare to those that do better, not just point at an awful shithole and say "see how good we are doing compared to them!" The US is not an "extremely safe place" compared to those that do best and it's extremely bad in racisme. No other western democracy imprison such a huge chunk of its population based on the color of their skin. Even in a relatively safe place in the US there's a way higher risk of gun violence than in any of the countries you should be comparing with. Murders is off the chart.

Unless someone from HK has a good reason to want to move to the US then all of Scandinavia, most of Europe, some of Asia and some of America outside the US would be a way safer choice.

> Please don't believe in media sensationalism.

*) Unless the media sensationalism is from the US media against China. What happens on US streets, regardless how awful it is, is always nothing, but as soon as a single person protests in Hong Kong it's a human tragedy.