A Hong Kong resident takes a photo of the display of national and HKSAR flags on Oct 1, 2022. (ANDY CHONG / CHINA DAILY)
The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government on Wednesday expressed its support for the Sports Federation and Olympic Committee’s decision to require all local sports associations to include the country’s name in their official titles by July.
Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism Kevin Yeung Yun-hung said the approach complies with the SAR’s Basic Law, which stipulates that Hong Kong’s sports teams should use the name “Hong Kong, China” when attending overseas competitions.
Organizations that fail to meet the deadline may not by eligible for SF&OC’s subsidies in the future, the committee said
Earlier, the SF&OC requested all of the city’s 83 member sports associations to include the country’s name in their official organization titles, which are displayed on their official websites and athletes’ uniforms. In a letter sent to about 60 groups yet to make the change, the SF&OC said it requires them to finish the renaming process by July 1.
READ MORE: HK sports groups briefed on new anthem, flag guidelines
Organizations that fail to meet the deadline may not be eligible for SF&OC’s subsidies in the future, the committee said.
Pui Kwan-kay, SF&OC’s honorary vice-president, said the requirement has much to do with a series of incidents that occurred when some international sports event organizers failed to play the correct Chinese national anthem during the HKSAR teams’ games last year.
In mid-November, the Asian Rugby Sevens Series held in South Korea played the wrong song instead of China’s national anthem before the game between the HKSAR and South Korea. A similar incident took place in December at the Asian Classic Powerlifting Championship in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Online search engine Google was also found to have placed a song which expressed support for social unrest in 2019 at the top of its search results page, when people searched “national anthem, Hong Kong”.
READ MORE: HKSAR adopts anthem, flag guidelines for sports events
Also on Wednesday, Secretary for Innovation, Technology and Industry Sun Dong said HKSAR government offiicials had a meeting with Google’s leaders in charge of the Asia-Pacific region, and urged the search engine giant to rank the Chinese national anthem correctly at the top of its search results. Sun said both sides agreed to continue with their communication and find a proper way to resolve the issue.
In a written reply to the Legislative Council, Sun said Google has an inescapable responsibility to provide the correct information on the Chinese national anthem to its users.