Originally Posted by
ORDflyer
Oh please, this was my tenth trip to China since 2001. I have flown both foreign and domestic flights in China. I have had a series of multiple entry visas. This flight was to the U.S. I am a white male business-man type. This kind of frisk had never happened before. May not happen again. I was reporting what happened to me. I was somewhat bemused by the fact that there was no concern about sex of either party to the screening.
I actually like China. There is enormous economic freedom,and there are many friendly and sensible people.
Are you implying I made this all up to make China look bad?
I never suggested you made up anything. And I couldn't care less if you'd like to make China look bad or not on most dimensions including airport security. But I don't like to see questionable insinuations go unchallenged.
Go re-read your original post, in which you omitted details such as you were flying to the USA, also whether you were singled out for extra treatment vs everybody was getting the same, US TSA-style. Frankly, you made it sound as if your experience was SOP in Shanghai. I believe that plenty of other posters here (besides myself) have put forth their own experiences, which are completely inconsistent with yours. So, whatever provoked their interest in Shanghai was either specific to YOU, or else you were the lucky 888th passenger of the day or whatever.
China has its share of petty and silly governmental requirements coming Down From On High, such as the household address registration and re-registration mentioned above. However, the general population as well as the front-line agents that must carry out the regulations BOTH recognize the stupidity, and do just enough to play along, or devise workarounds. In the USA, the front-line agents (such as the TSA) actually believe they are doing something worthwhile.