I felt the same at PEK last year; completely shocked they wanted all chargers, batteries, wires, electronics out and inspected (without using gloves even!). They tried to confiscate my portable cell phone charger, which led to a decent fight over it and having to demonstrate what it was for. The worst part of security there, however, was the extra security line after you've started walking down the jetway. No gloves searching your bags, and taking all liquids. So if you buy a water in the terminal, you can't take it on. Ridiculous, especially since your throat gets scratchy breathing the air there and you're prepping for a 13 hour flight.

Even small power banks aren't okay without proper labeling.

The liquid thing only applies to flights to countries that dislike liquids.

When in China, I always carry a bag for all items that will cause a re-scan:
* Adapters, wires
* Keys, coins, my thick watch, my phones (they don't like anything blocking the view
* LAG, of course
* Power banks, of course too - they must be properly labeled. They sometimes have instructions posted and sometimes verbally communicated to remove power banks for inspection.
* Cameras (if any, but I don't use cameras these days).

Terminal 1, regular line, ~8pm.

The lines weren't bad but the digging through everything was annoying, especially as we didn't have time to properly repack at the time.

Brick & cord, ipad, kindle, phone, USB charger, power bank (they didn't look at the rating, though), external HD & cables, bag of cables, mouse, bag of foreign-plug adapters and flashlight. Never before has any of that come out anywhere. The only thing different than previously is I decided it had been long enough since I used my ethernet cable that I wasn't going to carry it anymore.

The flight was to America, and America allows liquids that are purchased or filled after you've gone through security. So that wouldn't be the case here.

That's ironic, because carrying on as much as possible is a key component of mine! :D To each his own, I say....

The only issue I had with my departures from PEK and PVG are with my power banks: Tbh there are signs warning about maximum size and such, but I had no idea whether mine were compliant or not. Thankfully they were.

The US is the country I had in mind. I don't know of any others that routinely get secondary screening treatment.

Yes, it is the case in China for US-bound flights and is quite purposeful. While the US relaxed its post 9-11 rules on allowing liquids purchased past security to be boarded, China decided not to roll back the restriction. I'm sure it's because it's easier to have a clearly-defined, though severe, rule that the staff can uniformly apply to everyone, rather than get into endless arguments with passengers and have to make judgment calls case-by-case a thousand+ times per day on which liquids originated airside and which didn't. As if the gate secondary staff did not have full trust that the primary security screening would catch everything.

China is also ultra-sensitive and paranoid that any explosive might slip through on a US carrier or US-bound flight, maybe more so than with most other countries.

My hunch is that --these days-- the liquids ban is implemented partially at the behest of involved airlines (who need to allot for the secondary security). Furthermore, it's pretty clear that the vast majority of liquids they catch will have been procured after primary security (not much passes by those guys).

As a result of the failed 06 transatlantic plot targeting US, involving soft drink cans..batteries..wires..cameras, doesn't seem unreasonable for China to spend extra money on security proceedures or make airlines pay.

That was 10 years ago. The ban on liquids came considerably later.

And it certainly doesn't explain what happened this time. This is by far not my first time through PVG since 06.

I don't have the energy to research the exact timeline of the liquids ban saga today, but I am certain of the order of events:

1. somebody attempted to bomb a US bound airplane using liquids
2. the US responded with 3-1-1
-for a short spell, this applied to US bound flights (in addition to internal flights)
3. apart from dutifully respecting the "US bound flights" policy, China implemented its own version of 3-1-1 for domestic flights
4. the "US bound flights" policy is no longer a big deal for the US, but enforcement still happens in China (sometimes)

I assume that you are referring to the Style PS (http://www.leatherman.com/style-ps-2...iendly&start=2)

I always have my Style PS with me on a ring with a Gerber Shard and a house key, so I have learned that China and South Africa have rules prohibiting tools (pliers) in carry-on luggage. The Shard has never raised an eyebrow anywhere, and the Style PS has made it through PVG and JNB (but not PEK or CPT).