I'd avoid conflating South/East Asia with China. The only airport the article cites in China is HK airport, and even that is ambiguous. In fact, actual Chinese airports are notorious for delay.
And I was right in the sense that they don't make you take your shoes off or put you through the naked photo machine. However, the inconspicuous bag inspector literally disassembled my entire backpack, dumped everything out on the table in the most disorganized fashion possible, then literally walked away without saying a word leaving me 10 minutes to repack everything. That and they took away my post-security water on the jetway boarding the plane (apparently they only do this on US-bound flights though).