作者：毛一炜
编辑：胡景 校对：熊辩 翻译：吕峰

      最近看到中国忽然刮起一阵奇怪的风——俄罗斯免签刚落地，各种宣传就像接到命令一样，满屏在喊“快去！特别安全！”柬埔寨那边也是同样的夸法，一个是现实里电诈、绑架频发的国家，一个是前线每天还有炮火，战争都还没结束的国家，能被吹成地球上最值得旅游的地方。要是不知道的人，真的会以为那里是度假胜地。

      可偏偏，日本、韩国、欧美这些治安好、制度成熟、游客体验稳定的地方，却被描绘得像洪水猛兽一样。“不安全”、“排华”、“千万别去”——这种话每隔几个月就在国内循环播放。即使是全球犯罪率最低的国家之一的日本，在他们嘴里也是险象环生。

      一个常识是，正常国家不会鼓励自己的公民去战区旅行，也不会让人往治安混乱、制度薄弱的地方扎堆。可现实是，中共不仅不提醒，反而拼命催你去。 这不是因为那里安全，而是因为——它放心那些地方不会让你“看清世界”。

      你真要去了日本，去了美国，去了欧洲，你看到的新闻自由、社会秩序、法治结构，都足以把它几十年的宣传撕开一个口子。而去俄罗斯、去柬埔寨，你看到的混乱和腐败，反而让你更不会质疑“中国模式”。宣传不是为了你的体验，而是为了它的政治需要。

      最讽刺的是，我这段时间在社交平台已经反复刷到中国游客在俄罗斯被黑警勒索的经历：以“没有居住证”为名罚款。免签国家的游客怎么可能有“居住证”？这就是赤裸裸的敲诈。全世界都知道俄警腐败不是一天两天了，但国内宣传从来不提一句，因为那会影响他们塑造的“友好兄弟形象”。

      于是就出现了荒诞的反差——中共拼命吹的地方，处处是坑；中共极力阻止你去的地方，反而最安全。

      而这种反差在国内早就埋下了伏笔。公务员、老师、银行系统、国企员工，一大片群体的护照被集中收走，不能自由出国。理由永远是那几句机械的“涉密”、“统一管理”，但大家心里都知道：这不是怕泄密，而是怕他们看见自由世界的模样。

      所以它必须不断夸大危险、制造恐惧、扭曲现实，让你对真正正常的国家望而却步；同时又极力吹捧那些它能掌控叙事的国家，好让你以为自己“出去看世界”了，实际上不过是在一个更大的信息笼子里打转。

      它口中的“危险”，往往只是自由； 它口中的“安全”，往往才是真正的风险。

      世界并不是中共描述的那样，但中共最怕的，就是你亲自去看看真正的世界。

Dangerous Countries as Paradise, Safe Countries as Hell — The CCP’s Travel Logic

Abstract:China encourages its citizens to travel to dangerous destinations such as Russia and Cambodia, while issuing travel warnings against one of the world’s safest countries—Japan. This reflects the Chinese Communist Party’s need to maintain its rule through propaganda and ideological conditioning, thereby legitimizing its own oppressive governance.

Author: Mao Yiwei
Editor: Hu Jing Proofreader: Xiong Bian Translator: Lyu Feng

Recently, a peculiar trend has suddenly swept across China. No sooner had visa-free entry to Russia been announced than propaganda surged as if following orders, flooding screens with calls of “Go now! It’s especially safe!” Cambodia has been praised in much the same way. One is a country plagued in reality by rampant telecom fraud and kidnappings; the other is a country where artillery fire continues daily along the front lines, with the war not yet over. Yet both are being touted as the most worthwhile tourist destinations on Earth. Anyone unfamiliar with the facts might truly believe they are idyllic vacation paradises.

Yet paradoxically, places such as Japan, South Korea, Europe, and the United States—countries with good public security, mature institutions, and stable tourist experiences—are portrayed like ferocious beasts. “Unsafe,” “anti-Chinese,” “absolutely don’t go”—such phrases resurface in domestic discourse every few months. Even Japan, one of the countries with the lowest crime rates in the world, is depicted as fraught with danger in their narrative.

A basic common sense is this: a normal country does not encourage its citizens to travel to war zones, nor does it urge people to flock to places with chaotic public security and weak institutions. Yet in reality, the Chinese Communist Party not only fails to warn people, but actively pressures them to go.

This is not because those places are safe, but because—those are places where the authorities feel confident you will not “see the world clearly.”

If you truly go to Japan, to the United States, to Europe, what you encounter—press freedom, social order, and the structure of the rule of law—is enough to tear open a crack in decades of propaganda. But if you go to Russia or Cambodia, the chaos and corruption you witness instead make you less likely to question the so-called “Chinese model.” Propaganda is not designed for your experience; it serves their political needs.

The greatest irony is that recently, I have repeatedly come across accounts on social media of Chinese tourists being extorted by corrupt police in Russia—fined under the pretext of “not having a residence permit.” How could tourists from a visa-free country possibly have a “residence permit”? This is naked extortion. The world has long known that police corruption in Russia is nothing new, yet domestic propaganda never mentions it even once, because that would undermine the carefully crafted image of a “friendly brotherly nation.”

Thus an absurd contrast emerges: the places the CCP desperately promotes are riddled with traps, while the places it fiercely tries to stop you from visiting are in fact the safest.

And this contrast was foreshadowed long ago at home. Passports of large groups—civil servants, teachers, banking system employees, and state-owned enterprise staff—are centrally confiscated, depriving them of the freedom to travel abroad. The justification is always the same mechanical phrases: “involving state secrets,” “unified management.” But everyone knows the truth: it is not about preventing leaks; it is about preventing them from seeing what the free world actually looks like.

That is why it must constantly exaggerate danger, manufacture fear, and distort reality—so that you recoil from truly normal countries; while at the same time lavishly praising those countries whose narratives it can control, making you believe you have “gone out to see the world,” when in fact you are merely circling within a larger information cage.

What it calls “danger” is often nothing more than freedom;what it calls “safety” is often the real risk.

The world is not as the CCP describes it—and what the CCP fears most is that you might go and see the real world for yourself.