UA HKG tried to weigh me

[pilot]

On yesterday's evening flight HKG-SIN the HKG folks had installed a scale just at the end of the Red Carpet line. When I arrived at the carpet there was a young woman with her hand luggage standing on the scale.

I gave my passport and the BP to the GA and when I walked on with the stub, the lady next to scales stopped me and commanded - not asked "please step on the scales sir". To my terse "why should I?", she answered in eloquent English (just mention that to emphasis that it was not a communications problem) "we taking the weight of all passengers today". This clearly wasn't true as the mass-boarding gate to the right had no scales installed.
To my "I am not interested, thanks" she countered "we need to know the weight of the passengers".

She made it sound very official as if the weight distribution of the plane depended on that number. Only to my firm "I am not willing to participate, I will not step on these scales" she looked over to what appeared to be her supervisor, and for a few seconds said "ok then, move on!".

I find this pretty outrageous. Weighing hand luggage is one thing but passenger weight is personal information. Asking for people to participate is one thing but demanding that they participate is unacceptable. UA is an international carrier and a US airline. It cannot simply accept cultural deviations at the HKG station to condone such a procedure.

To somewhat confine the discussion: I snuggly fit into an E- seat (unlike the man they placed behind me despite the scales). I brought one very small backpack and a small computer bag. The woman they measured just before I entered was very slim. So this was definitely not the echelon of a POS probing raid.

Am I overinterpreting this?