Hong Kong Footballers’ Silence on National Anthem Sparks Controversy

On July 19th, the East Asian Football Championship 2022 kicked off in Japan with a controversial scene during the national anthem ceremony before the opening match between Hong Kong and Japan. 

 When the Chinese Communist national anthem was played, almost none of the 11 members of the Hong Kong team sang along and kept their mouths shut throughout the whole anthem. After the image was uploaded to the mainland social media platforms, it immediately drew criticism from mainland Chinese who said, “All I can say is that patriotic education needs to be strengthened”, “I don’t consider them compatriots either”, and “we have been letting them off the hook for more than 20 years, and we can only spend another 20 years correcting them.” As always, the focus of public opinion in Communist China is not on the event itself, but on any opportunity to criticize Hong Kong people for being unpatriotic, while using this counterfactual to brainwash the mainland public day and night about the importance of patriotism and love for the Party, hitting two birds with one stone. 

 Ironically, the first line of its national anthem is “Stand up! Those who refuse to be slaves! However, it seems no amount of catastrophic events would be enough to awaken the people. The long period of brainwashing by the evil regime have been too powerful. To be freed from evil, one must have a strong desire for truth, a quest for true faith, and the courage to uphold the truth and true faith in the midst of crisis.