[qubex]

As somebody who lived for three and a half years in mainland China (2003-2006) and regularly crossed the border, I can confirm that this was my experience too. I was never tampered with, interrogated, or made the object of any undue attention; my equipment was of the utmost disinterest to authorities and I even crossed the border with copies of Nineteen-Eighty-Four and Capitalist Realism once, to the local authorities' utter disinterest.

I still visit semi-regularly (once a year, approximately) and my observations remain valid now as then (for me at least).

Same goes for my experiences going into and coming out of Russia, for that matter.

[dis-sys]

China International Book Trading Cooperation (CIBTC) offers the original version of Capitalist Realism online to Chinese readers for 141RMB delivered. CIBTC is a company started/owned/managed by the Communist Party of China.

https://detail.tmall.com/item.htm?spm=a230r.1.14.1.WxB4yL&id...

Nineteen Eighty-Four is more interesting, apparently, there are hundreds of vendors selling it on taobao.com, including the Xinhua which was started/owned/managed by the Communist Party of China.

https://list.tmall.com/search_product.htm?q=Nineteen+Eighty-...

[qubex]

That's very interesting research I never thought to conduct, thank you.

(In all due deference, Capitalist Realism is a very anti-capitalist argument, so...)

[LorenPechtel]

Seconded. I've carried a laptop to China upwards of 20 times by now. The bag has been opened exactly once--by airport security as I was leaving, they wanted to run my assorted electronics through separately.

Only once has customs had the slightest look at our bags and that was when the airline left them behind and we had to pick them up later. I was wheeling out a cart with 4 checked bags, no carryons and that drew the interest of the customs guy. The entry stamp two days earlier also drew his interest. He started running the bags through his x-ray, at that point my wife caught up and explained what had happened (she's a native speaker, I figured it was easier to leave any discussion to her) and that was the end of it. Nothing was ever opened.

Even the day my wife set off a nuke alarm at customs produced no response. (She had set off a previous alarm also, which was resolved with a short discussion. They never checked what the actual radiation source was and the card from the lab that explained why she was hot was sitting at home in the pocket of the jacket she didn't wear.)

Now, if my employer was some big company I would be concerned with espionage but that's all. Since my employer doesn't do anything remotely of interest to the Chinese I don't worry about it. Besides, we stay with relatives, my laptop has never seen a Chinese hotel room.

[zcbenz]

Books get much less censorship in China, compared to its Internet. Like, there are new books about culture revolution every year.

However if you brought any book that attacks current government, for example books about the 64 event, you would be in very big trouble.

[chmars]

64 event = https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiananmen_Square_protests_of...

[dis-sys]

That is not true. The most famous student leader who testified in front of the US congress 8 times was allowed to go back in China. In fact, she (Chai Lin) even started her business in China.

You seriously believe that she is less influential than a few books? If Chai Lin is allowed to enter and stay in China, what is the point stopping a few books?

[justicezyx]

They are allowed because they fully abandoned their belief... Oh, humans...

[rdslw]

Correcting Russia case.

Its an only state where during my travels on the way out of the country (Russia here) in addition to usual security scan and passport control you have an additional booth maned with rusia official/military personel only judging if they can let you out. Again: this was in addition to passport control due to destination etc.

Source: me at s petersburg airport 2016.

P.s. Overall Russia experience was very good and eyes opening (comparing to what you get from media)

[jackyinger]

I was able to get away with carrying a knife through the Shanghai metro, and onto the maglev to the airport. At entries to both, they x-rayed my bag and were not enthused by the knife's presence (one guard made vigorous stabbing gestures to communicate his concern). But it did not take much to assure them it was a souvenir not to be used as a weapon.

My point is perhaps you were profiled to your benefit as well.

Edit: I'm from the US.