4 ms·

Why do we only hear stories about this from the US and not from China or Russia?

Asooka 10y ago
Russia aren't interested in pointless security theatre, if they're interested in you, you just wake up at an enhanced interrogation facility, or you have all your stuff searched without anyone notifying you. Both also have tighter controls on what gets posted. I'd say Russia also have a big interest in appearing better than the USA, so they can just tell their citizens: "Look at the kind of shit they do in the USA; while when you enter our great country of Russia, you just come in peacefully". Back in the day part of anti-USA propaganda was "USA treats blacks in horrific ways, we treat everyone equally".
- mjolk 10y ago
  I think it ultimately comes down to the type of person working in airport security -- in Russia, you interact with police or military affiliated staff when you "enjoy" special attention. In the US, you're dealing with a very numerous staff of people without special training being paraded as a type of "elite security" for the country. Anecdotally, at the US border, I've had TSA deny a small wooden children's toy because they got drunk on a fiction that I could break it or combine it with other items to make some sort of weapon (a ridiculous idea), and, on another instance, deny a carabiner because they believed I could use it as a sort of "brass knuckles" (also ridiculous and demonstrative that none of the involved parties were even passingly familiar with punching (as a carabiner would simply cut into the puncher's hand)). At the Russian border, I misheard an important question and answered incorrectly, and the treatment was professional and grounded in reality (confirmation of the type of work I do, my documents, and my purpose for being in the country). On the American side, the workers have big imaginations and are incentivized to invent things to catch. On the Russian side, they're looking for suspicious outliers.
paradite 10y ago
Because if you are anti-China, you will probably not want to travel to China in the first place. And if you are pro-China, then you have nothing to hide and is of no interest to the custom.
icebraining 10y ago
Because the US is considered a democratic nation, and therefore held to an higher standard, at least in mostly-Western communities. It's a sign of respect.
ohohohkay 10y ago
Because simply US is dealing with different types of threats than China/Russia do. Priority for US is the terrorists. I don't know about Russia but the priority for China is the anti-government folks. Terrorists never speak out so you never know who they are. So everyone is assumed to be possible terrorists by the US. Thus everyone gets harassed. But the anti-gov folks have to speak out, everyone knows who they are. It's way easier to pick them. Chinese border control is not interested in your illegal electronic docs at all as it is impossible for you to disseminate them in China and if you were caught on that, it is a totally different agency to come and deal with you. And I guarantee you don't want that.

Russia aren't interested in pointless security theatre, if they're interested in you, you just wake up at an enhanced interrogation facility, or you have all your stuff searched without anyone notifying you. Both also have tighter controls on what gets posted. I'd say Russia also have a big interest in appearing better than the USA, so they can just tell their citizens: "Look at the kind of shit they do in the USA; while when you enter our great country of Russia, you just come in peacefully". Back in the day part of anti-USA propaganda was "USA treats blacks in horrific ways, we treat everyone equally".

mjolk 10y ago
I think it ultimately comes down to the type of person working in airport security -- in Russia, you interact with police or military affiliated staff when you "enjoy" special attention. In the US, you're dealing with a very numerous staff of people without special training being paraded as a type of "elite security" for the country. Anecdotally, at the US border, I've had TSA deny a small wooden children's toy because they got drunk on a fiction that I could break it or combine it with other items to make some sort of weapon (a ridiculous idea), and, on another instance, deny a carabiner because they believed I could use it as a sort of "brass knuckles" (also ridiculous and demonstrative that none of the involved parties were even passingly familiar with punching (as a carabiner would simply cut into the puncher's hand)). At the Russian border, I misheard an important question and answered incorrectly, and the treatment was professional and grounded in reality (confirmation of the type of work I do, my documents, and my purpose for being in the country). On the American side, the workers have big imaginations and are incentivized to invent things to catch. On the Russian side, they're looking for suspicious outliers.

paradite 10y ago

Because if you are anti-China, you will probably not want to travel to China in the first place. And if you are pro-China, then you have nothing to hide and is of no interest to the custom.

icebraining 10y ago

Because the US is considered a democratic nation, and therefore held to an higher standard, at least in mostly-Western communities. It's a sign of respect.

ohohohkay 10y ago

Because simply US is dealing with different types of threats than China/Russia do. Priority for US is the terrorists. I don't know about Russia but the priority for China is the anti-government folks. Terrorists never speak out so you never know who they are. So everyone is assumed to be possible terrorists by the US. Thus everyone gets harassed. But the anti-gov folks have to speak out, everyone knows who they are. It's way easier to pick them. Chinese border control is not interested in your illegal electronic docs at all as it is impossible for you to disseminate them in China and if you were caught on that, it is a totally different agency to come and deal with you. And I guarantee you don't want that.