The Chinese Embassy in Brazil warned Chinese citizens on Friday of possible robbery and theft in the Olympic host country after a Chinese hurdler revealed on his social network that his luggage had been stolen when checking at a hotel in Rio de Janeiro on Monday.
"Avoid going to slum or remote areas … Do not wear jewelry and expensive watches, or use cell phones while walking on the street," read a statement issued by the embassy and China's foreign ministry.
Security in Rio de Janeiro has been a grave concern ahead of the 2016 Summer Olympic Games that will kick off in the city on August 5.
Several Chinese athletes, delegation members, media workers and tourists have fallen victim to Rio's crime woes, according to the statement.
Track and field star Shi Dongpeng told the press that a piece of baggage placed in front of the check-in desk was stolen one minute after he was spat on by a local and went to the toilet to clean himself.
Surveillance footage showed that the spitter and his accomplice stole his luggage and got into a waiting car, Shi was quoted by the news site inews.qq.com as saying on Wednesday.
More worryingly, the Brazilian authorities said on July 21 that they had arrested 10 members of an Islamist militant group for allegedly organizing terrorist attacks, The New York Times reported.
The leader of Australia's Olympic team called on Brazilian authorities to deploy extra security in June after a sailor and wheelchair basketball player Liesl Tesch's bicycle was stolen at gunpoint while training in the host city, the Guardian reported on June 21.
Three members of Spain's Olympic sailing team were also robbed at gunpoint in a popular tourist area of Rio de Janeiro in May, AFP said.
An additional 3,000 soldiers will be dispatched to patrol the Games to bring the total number of troops to 21,000. They will join the 47,000 police officers who will also man the Games. In addition, Olympic organizers have called on 20,000 more soldiers to secure the five cities in which the Olympic soccer tournament is scheduled, the Washington Post said on July 17.
"Recent news about the Rio Olympic Games regarding risks like the Zika virus and high levels of crime in the city has made some Chinese tourists hesitate," Xu Xiaolei, manager of marketing at China CYTS Tours Holding Co, told the Global Times.
More than 1,600 cases of the Zika virus have been confirmed in Brazil. Sam Allen, an expert in infectious diseases at Crosshouse Hospital in Scotland, has warned that all visitors to Rio risk contracting the virus, the UK-based Daily Record reported.
However, the risk of Zika virus infections at the Olympic Games is both low and manageable, Margaret Chan, chief of the World Health Organization, was quoted by Reuters as saying on Friday.
Personal security is another concern for most Chinese tourists. A tourist surnamed Cui who stayed in Brazil for two months in 2015 told the Global Times that she feared taking her purse or cell phone out on the street.
Homicides were up 15 percent year-on-year in Rio in the first four months of 2016, with mugging up by 24 percent, the Wall Street Journal reported.
"The city was safe and stable when Rio de Janeiro beat Chicago, Tokyo and Madrid to win the bid to host the Olympic Games in 2009," He Wenyi, executive director of the China Institute for Sports Value under Peking University, told the Global Times on Friday, explaining that the local economy had previously thrived despite economic recession worldwide.
Today, the public security has been worsened by Brazil's severe financial downturn and political unrest, He noted. Brazil's labor market shed more than 530,000 jobs in the first half of 2016, the worst since recording began in 2002, the Xinhua News Agency reported on Wednesday.
In June alone, 91,000 jobs were lost, a drop for the 15th straight month. From June 2015 to June 2016, Brazil lost 1.76 million jobs.
According to the Guardian, the city's government has cut budgets for a range of public services, meaning police officers have had their salaries delayed.
Brazilian police protested unpaid salaries at Rio de Janeiro's main airport, AFP reported. Officers held up a banner reading: "Welcome to hell. Police and firefighters don't get paid, whoever comes to Rio de Janeiro will not be safe."
Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff, who is facing an impeachment trial, has decided not to attend the torch ceremony opening the Olympic Games on Tuesday, according to Reuters. The crisis has paralyzed the government as it struggles to revive the economy from its worst recession in decades.