The airlines and/or state aviation authorities aren't helping the frustration of regular passengers by making some bloody silly rules. On all flights out of HKG I believe it is now decreed that only plastic cutlery may be used. However, the wine is still in glass bottles. Could any FAs here comment on whether they would prefer to tackle someone coming at them with a standard eating knife or with a broken bottle?
The cabin crew I spoke to (without getting the flight diverted, thankfully) think this is mad, and look forward to getting the silverware back. They are not helped when catering produces steak, which the plastic knives can't cut, resulting in some pretty pissed off (front-end) passengers.
At HKG the security is no different from what it always was - i.e pretty good and swift as far as I can tell. We all just get to suffer because the US domestic system got the balance wrong.