My anecdotal experience at Guangzhou (2 months ago), flying internationally, was the opposite. Didn't have to remove shoes, didn't have to take my laptop out of my bag. I was going to remove my belt before going through the metal detector but they told me not to, which set off the alarm. All they did was wave a handheld metal detector over my body and then I was through. Didn't get patted down and didn't have to go through a body scanner.