I travel to San Diego every month. The locals there warn that Tijuana is much more dangerous than it used to be. Even the more adventurous partiers that I know avoid Tijuana for fear of being robbed, beaten, and/or killed.

Its actually pretty safe now if you stay out of the obvious ugly parts (zona norte,eastern Tijuana). Violence escalated 4 years ago because of the heavy handed approach against drug gangs from our former president, now It's been pretty tame with a couple of incidents, nothing compared to whats happening right now in northeastern cities.

I can't speak to a comparison with Chinese cities, but TJ is pretty safe, as there are hundreds of thousands of middle class people living there now. Just stick to the places they go to (Zona Rio, Agua Caliente, etc) and you can have a nice evening out for 1/2-1/4 what you would spend in San Diego.

I believe there are also 1-2 startup incubators (space only, no money to invest) in Zona Rio now.

TJ as San Diegans call is not as safe as it used to be. But, there is more to Mexico than TJ.