Hong Kong Blasts Protest Song Replacing China National Anthem at Rugby Final

Richard Frost and Kari Lindberg
·2 min read

(Bloomberg) -- Hong Kong officials criticized the mistaken playing of a protest song instead of the Chinese national anthem at the final of a rugby tournament in South Korea.

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The Hong Kong Rugby Sevens men’s side were seen standing to attention as Glory to Hong Kong was played before their final in Incheon against South Korea on Sunday, in a screen-recording of a live-stream posted on the Twitter account of a local journalist. The song was the unofficial anthem of mass pro-democracy protests that rocked the former British colony in 2019.

The Hong Kong government “strongly deplores and opposes the playing of a song closely associated with violent protests,” a spokesman said in a statement Monday. The government said it had asked the Hong Kong Rugby Union to launch a “full and in-depth investigation” and submit a detailed report.

Asia Rugby “deeply regrets” the incident, which was caused by a junior staff member downloading the wrong song from the Internet, the organizer said in a statement Monday. Both Asia Rugby and Korea Rugby Union would like to apologize to the Hong Kong and central governments, according to the statement.

The correct anthem was played during the prize giving ceremony after Hong Kong won the final, the statement said, adding that the match footage was removed from air immediately.

Some local legislators reacted strongly to the incident. Starry Lee in a Facebook posting expressed “extreme dissatisfaction” with the organizer for making such “low-level” mistake. Junius Ho on Facebook blasted members of the team for listening to the song, saying the “only solution is to dissolve the Hong Kong rugby team.”

The Sports Federation and Olympic Committee of Hong Kong, China said in a statement the explanation given by the organizer was “unacceptable.”

The faux pas in South Korea comes just a week after Hong Kong hosted the Sevens tournament as a key part of the city’s reopening party. Chief Executive John Lee, who led the crackdown against demonstrators as the city’s security chief, and his successor in that role, Chris Tang, were among senior officials attending the event.

The Chinese national anthem had become a symbol of Communist Party interference in recent years, and often drew boos during soccer matches. In June 2020, Hong Kong passed a law carrying sentences as long as three years that banned residents from disrespecting the anthem.

Last week, a Hong Kong court handed down a three-month jail term to the first person convicted under that legislation, underscoring the sensitivity around the song.

(Updates with statement from Asia Rugby in fourth paragraph)

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