Exactly. The risk is too high for me to personally want to take that chance. It seems like many others also come to the same conclusion in their risk assessment. Nonetheless there are still thousands of people visiting the United States (and China, for that matter) every day. The majority of them aren’t randomly arrested on some trumped up charge.
The United States are now more or less on the same risk level as China. While it’s likely that your visit is going to be uneventful, there is a chance that you may be disappeared without any form of recourse.
I remember visiting Mohenjo-Daro in the mid 1990s and being impressed by the sheer scale of time between these remnants of civilization and myself. It’s sad that the site isn’t as developed as it deserves to be, since it is among the oldest proofs of civilisation still around.
I fail to see a scenario where Europeans and China come into direct conflict. Even if/when China invades Taiwan I don’t see the Europeans committing to the Pacific, given the Russian threat directly at home. Therefore the only real war scenario seems to be a direct war with Russia. For this the Gripen should be solid, especially with uncertainty about the availability of some capabilities of the F-35 likely depending on US support.
The last time I visited China was ca. 2005/6 and pretty much matches what you describe.
The last time I was in the United States was in 2015. While I work in banking (specifically IT for banking) it was fairly chill at the time. I changed jobs though in early 2016 and haven’t been required to leave the EU for work related travel since, which is incredibly reassuring.