Abject Stupidity By Olympiad Arbiters or An Attempt To Save China From A Loss?

From Chessbase:
This last point saw its effects during the game between Nigel Short and Li Chao. That a player is searched before or after a game is quite understandable, but unless there is a genuine belief a player is cheating, this should never happen during a game. To the Englishman’s disbelief, while playing a do-or-die position with the time control closing in, the arbiters decided this was the perfect time to ask him to step away from the board and subject himself to a full search. Short was appalled, and was having none of it. He outright refused. The rules stated that this could lead to a forfeit if he did so, and in his case, it could mean the 3-1 victory by England, could become a 2-2 tie. In the end, fortunately, nothing more than an official warning was issued to him, but one would have thought some common sense would have avoided this episode altogether.

http://en.chessbase.com/post/2016-baku-rd7-the-day-the-giants-fell