Trust them over an American one

It’s also bad because of the UK online safety act. I don’t want our flamingo to be at risk :(

I don’t think they should geoblock UK instances, though. As the instances are responsible for their users.

I think treason laws have only been used against people who were actually plotting to or attempting to murder the monarch.

Your choice ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

You could just delete your sensitive stuff on your normal device if you cannot afford a burner. VPN certificates and logins can be revoked.

Yeah but the process of taking a phone, getting the unlock code, installing it, etc.

True, although you can just sandbox it and refuse to give it permissions.

Foreigners looking to travel through China’s Xinjiang

That’s only for Xinjiang.

Yep. Pretty efficient most of the time

You don’t. I went to China a few weeks ago and my phone was never of any suspicion or brought into question.

I have never heard of that happening. surely that’ll take ages if they had to stick an app on every foreigner’s phone

I unironically think the USA’s security might be worse than China. Everyone in China was quite friendly and patient.

They can, but they probably won’t in all likelihood. You could get in a car accident on the way to the airport. Your aeroplane could also crash.

Doesn’t the USA do the exact same thing?

Fair enough to be fair. I did make sure the passport I was using to enter China was that of a country with no political drama happening. It did allow visa free entry though as well, so that was nice.

I actually see China and the USA as the same level now. Difference is that the USA doesn’t have cool railway infrastructure and whatever the heck is going on in Chongqing.

I don’t really think China is going to want to cause an international incident, especially during a tourist drive. Although it can be risky if they want to take hostages.

They can’t do that unless they take your devices, gain admin access and install stuff onto it. You don’t just get spyware installed your phone simply by entering a country.

Also the whole “if you aren’t intending to do anything illegal” bit really reads like all the piece of shit bootlicking conservatives after George Floyd.

Except that is a whole different context. The argument doesn’t work if you’re a citizen of a country and granting your government more and more powers. It would apply maybe if you were a Chinese citizen. OP isn’t talking about moving to China or installing a similar government in their home country. They are going on holiday. You can behave yourself and cooperate with their requirements for a few weeks. If you are really against a country having powers to check your phone and devices and such as a matter of principle, not because you’ve got anything to hide, then don’t go.

George Floyd was an American citizen murdered in his own country by the powers that were supposed to protect him. Big difference.

Although I did take precautions myself, such as deleting my memes/downloads folder just in case I saved anything that could be offensive. But it didn’t matter because they didn’t check my phone anyway for simply being there.

China itself cares the most about public disorder and foreign influence. As long as you aren’t intending on causing foreign interference in how they do things and are just going for purposes of tourism/adventure/meeting people, then you’ll be absolutely fine. They don’t really care enough about you to give you special treatment unless you are seen as a threat like that.

What are the risks, if you aren’t intending on doing anything illegal?

Case against you for doing what exactly? Just don’t break the law. It’s not hard. They’re hardly going to care much about an average American going on holiday unless he intends on causing problems, a disruption, or potentially has useful information