The issue with traveling to China is not the border crossing. Its the many places you can be compromised after you've crossed the border (your hotel, the inter

The issue with traveling to China is not the border crossing. Its the many places you can be compromised after you've crossed the border (your hotel, the internet cafe, etc). While working for a couple of different financial institutions they had blanket "hand in your electronic devices" both before you went to China (to ensure you didn't take them) and after you returned (to ensure you didn't attempt to continue using the device they gave you for your trip). This had nothing to do with political dissidents or customs inspections and everything to do with the assumption that anything on a device in China was compromised for financial reasons. Its possible that the US/UK have been put in the same bucket by these organizations, and maybe with cause, but the threat model is completely different between the 2 places and comparing border crossing experiences doesn't invalidate that.