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Protest song played for Hong Kong rugby team in South Korea


By HYUNG-JIN KIM and KANIS LEUNG
Associated Press

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Organizers of a South Korean regional rugby tournament are apologizing for mistakenly playing a song championed by Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters as China’s national anthem, sparking a sharp reaction from the city’s government.

The song “Glory to Hong Kong,” which calls for democracy and freedom, was played before the men’s final between South Korea and Hong Kong in the second round of the Asian Rugby Sevens series in Incheon, west of Seoul, on Nov. 14.

Videos of the song played during the competition went viral on Hong Kong social media, and the song, written by local musicians and sung by demonstrators during widespread anti-government protests in 2019, is now highly sensitive.

The Hong Kong government issued a strongly worded statement on November 15, expressing its dissatisfaction with the incident.

“The national anthem is a symbol of our country. It is the responsibility of the organizers of the competition to ensure that the national anthem is respected as it is due,” a government spokesman said.

The Seoul-based Korean Rugby Union later said the wrong song was played by human error and not politically motivated.

League officials said they had apologized to the Asian Rugby Federation, as well as to Hong Kong and China. They said they were notified of the mistake by staff from the Chinese mainland team, which was also participating in the match.

Organizers issued an apology in Korean and English at the stadium after the match and played China’s official national anthem for the winning Hong Kong team at the awards ceremony, the officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media on the matter.

According to officials, a person in charge of the national anthem accidentally selected the protesters’ song saved in a computer folder named “Hong Kong.” Before each tournament entrant submitted a recording of their country’s national anthem, they mistakenly saved the anthem without knowing it was about the protesters, officials said.

Rugby Asia also apologized to the Hong Kong Rugby Union and the Hong Kong and Chinese governments, adding that the wrongly played song was downloaded from the internet.

While the Hong Kong Rugby Union admitted it was a case of human error, it said the error was still unacceptable. Pro-Beijing politicians in Hong Kong have also voiced their displeasure, with some calling for an investigation into whether it was deliberate.

Tang Qizong, a member of the Hong Kong Executive Council, said that if the mistake was unintentional, the act would not constitute a criminal offense. But if the investigation proves deliberate, those involved could face legal ramifications related to the city’s sedition charges, the National Security Act or the National Anthem Ordinance, depending on the outcome of the investigation, the senior attorney said.

Beijing implemented sweeping security laws in 2020 to crack down on the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong. It criminalizes succession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign powers. The “National Anthem Regulations” severely punish acts of insulting the Chinese national anthem.

Hong Kong Chief Executive Lee Kar-chao said police would investigate whether the incident violated the National Anthem Ordinance or other local laws. Lee added that Chief Secretary for Administration Chen Zhiwei also met South Korea’s top diplomat in the city, condemning the incident and asking the South Korean side to investigate the matter.

In 2019, thousands of Hong Kong fans booed loudly when the Chinese national anthem was played before a World Cup qualifier. The crowd at the event erupted into chants of “Glory to Hong Kong,” bringing the protests in Hong Kong into the sports arena.

In September, a man who paid tribute to the late Queen Elizabeth II near the British consulate in Hong Kong was arrested on sedition charges. Local media reported that he had played songs on the harmonica, including “Glory to Hong Kong.”



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