Re China border crossing. How closely will they look at facebook, instagram, whatapp, twitter?
I cannot think of anything interesting they would find, just lots of inane drivel and holiday pics/friend etc.
Seems it would take a lot of time and effort to find something worthwhile for them
A lot of the checking I have seen for Australia ("Border Patrol" on Crime TV) and US (some other crime show) is looking at texts for people who appear to be coming for work (not genuine tourist-type visitors). So they look and see if the person has been texting about job schedules and such. In the US TV shows it seemed they were more looking for evidence of drug transactions (for people caught already with drugs).
So these so-called first world countries seem to be looking for actual law-breaking activities rather than "free speech" type of Facebook posts that the mainland is searching for...
I have read on other forums of Americans that travel from Thailand / Philippines / Cambodia etc that have had their phones and laptops checked by US customs, probably assumed they are Sexpats and trying to find under age photos etc, Im fine that they check for such things.
You probaby dont fit that profile so thats a good thing
I've been to China dozens of time in the past few month and many of my co-workers and friends have been to China even more frequently. Have not heard of any phone checks.
On the other hand the lines at the checkpoints are definitely a lot shorter now. If I am not worried about HK long term and impact to others, I'd want the protests to continue forever...
Phone check happened to me leaving Russia.