Police to probe latest anthem blunder

Organiser apologises after protest song played at sports event in Dubai

Police will investigate after a protest song from the antigovernment unrest in 2019 was wrongly played instead of the Chinese national anthem at an overseas powerlifting competition, the acting sports commissioner has said, while the organiser of the event has apologised for the blunder.

Paul Cheng Ching-wan, from the Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau, yesterday said police and the Sports Federation and Olympic Committee of Hong Kong, China would carry out a probe into the incident. The force has previously launched investigations into similar mixups involving the Chinese national anthem at recent overseas rugby matches.

A video posted online showed that in the latest incident on Friday at the Asian Classic Powerlifting Championship in Dubai, the song “Glory to Hong Kong” was played during a medal awarding ceremony where athlete Susanna Lin won gold. After the 15-second mark, Lin was seen making a “T” sign with her hands to alert the organisers of the blunder, with the Chinese national anthem “March of the Volunteers” being played soon after.

“Glory to Hong Kong” was written during the 2019 antigovernment movement, becoming a protest anthem sung at rallies and by some spectators at football matches.

The Asian Powerlifting Federation, the organiser of the event, on Saturday said in a letter that a technical team had made the error.

“The technical team [is] made up of volunteers from various countries and the members do not have [an] idea what the Hong Kong, China national anthem should be,” Farshid Soltani, the organisation’s president, said in the letter addressed to the Hong Kong Weightlifting and Powerlifting Association.

“The technical team [had] downloaded all national anthems from the internet to prepare for countries who did not bring their national anthems. As the technical team needed to manage multiple versions in the computer, the incorrect file was not deleted and was opened during the award ceremony.”

Soltani said that the Hong Kong team had informed the technical staff immediately of the blunder, and the song was stopped before the Chinese national anthem “March of the Volunteers” was played. The event went on smoothly afterwards, he added.

He also said participating countries and regions were asked to submit their national anthems and that the Hong Kong team had provided one to the organiser upon arrival.

“The technical team has examined the files of national anthems after the [incident]. [The federation’s] executive committee and the technical team will ensure such [an incident] will not happen again,” he said.

The committee earlier said that the Hong Kong Weightlifting and Powerlifting Association had acted according to guidelines that were issued following similar anthem blunders recently, and had provided a recording of “March of the Volunteers” on November 28 for use at the event.

Acting sports commissioner Cheng said the guidelines had been effective, as the athlete and the committee members on the scene reacted immediately when the wrong song was played.

“We think they have done a proper job in upholding the dignity of the national anthem, the dignity of the country,” Cheng added.

A police spokesman said they would investigate whether the incident involved a conspiracy to violate the National Anthem Ordinance or other city laws.

Pui Kwan-kay, honorary vice-president of the committee, stressed that organisers should not be downloading the national anthem from the internet. He said a Hong Kong representative had brought an official copy of the national anthem to the competition, but the organisers had downloaded a song from the internet instead.

“This led to a serious mistake, so we hope to remind the organisers to not cause controversy. We want them to pay attention and treat this matter seriously,” Pui said.

The Hong Kong government earlier said in a statement that it “strongly deplores and opposes the incident”, adding it had asked the Sports Federation and Olympic Committee of Hong Kong, China to follow up “in a serious manner”.

The incident follows a string of mix-ups involving the Chinese national anthem at overseas sports events recently, including the Asian Rugby Sevens Series in South Korea.

The technical team … and the members do not have [an] idea what the … anthem should be

FARSHID SOLTANI, FEDERATION CHIEF