Protest by supporters at international friendly follows Beijing’s toughening of penalties for disrespecting national song

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Hong Kong football fans loudly booed and jeered China’s national anthem at a match on Thursday, defying Beijing days after Communist leaders tightened penalties for disrespecting the song.

Ahead of the start of an international friendly against Bahrain, which the home team lost 2-0, a wall of screams overtook the instrumental music broadcast over loudspeakers and the fans ended with a cry of “We are Hong Kong”.

Hong Kong football supporters have been protesting the anthem for more than two years since the 2014 Umbrella Movement, a series of pro-democracy street protests that failed to secure concessions on electoral reform from the Beijing government.

But the latest act of defiance comes less than a week after China forced Hong Kong to criminalise disrespecting the national song, March of the Volunteers. Local legislation still needs to be adopted, but fans aredetermined to protest what they see as the creeping influence of China in the semi-autonomous city.

“They want to criminalise having an opinion; this is not correct for a free society,” said a spectator who would only give his surname, Chan. “Of course I am scared, the government is very powerful and I’m just an ordinary citizen,” he added.

The planned legislation already appears to be creating an atmosphere of fear. Some fans screamed at the media not to film the incident, claiming the footage could lead to arrests, with one supporter throwing a bowl of rice at a Guardian journalist who was recording the protest on his phone.

The debate over respect for the national anthem is the latest sign of frustration in Hong Kong at an increasingly assertive China and shrinking freedoms in the former British colony. Although Britain handed over control to China in 1997, Hong Kong continues to compete separately from China in international sporting events.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A Hong Kong fan sits in front of a flag before the friendly between Hong Kong and Bahrain. Photograph: Isaac Lawrence/AFP/Getty Images

China’s rubber-stamp parliament formally extended a law banning disrespect for the national anthem to Hong Kong on Saturday. The law came into effect in China in October and carries a maximum penalty of three years in jail.

“It contradicts Hong Kong’s conventional sense of freedom of expression,” said Claudia Mo, a pro-democracy MP who will ultimately vote on a local version of the law. “It’s designed to scare Hong Kongers into obedience. The government is very good at using judicial means to intimidate activists these days.”

Penalties for disrespecting the anthem should start with a warning and carry a maximum sentence of no more than three months in jail, Mo said.

The wording of the law has drawn scrutiny from legal experts in the city, which maintains its own common law system and courts. The song is commonly played nightly on television and radio stations before news broadcasts, leading commentators to say it is unrealistic to require everyone to stand each time the song is heard.

Although Hong Kong is largely administered separately from the rest of China, Beijing does have the power to compel the territory to pass certain laws by amending the Basic Law, the city’s mini-constitution.

After 1997, God Save the Queen was replaced by March of the Volunteers as Hong Kong’s national anthem. The song, written in the early 1930s, was originally used in a leftist film and became an anti-Japanese rallying cry in China during the second world war.

Fifa has previously fined the Hong Kong Football Association for fans’ protests against the anthem, but the financial penalties have had little effect, while the regional governing body has also issued repeated warnings.

The head of the local association, Wilson Wong, suggested fans may have to register their names when buying tickets in the future, and repeat offenders would be banned from games. He also said stadium officials may confiscate any protest banners.

Name registration would also aid police once Hong Kong passes a law criminalising the behaviour.

But supporters of the move to criminalise ridicule of the anthem contend most people in Hong Kong should have little to fear.

“The purpose of the law is to remind people to respect our country and our national anthem. It’s very simple, it’s not directed at limiting freedom of speech,” said Holden Chow, a pro-establishment politician who is part of the coalition that will likely decide on the final version of the law.

“There must be behaviour and an intention to commit a crime, so people will not be arrested for accidentally doing something that disrespects the anthem.”

He described the football protests as “very rude”.

Chow pointed to an existing law that criminalises the desecration of the Chinese flag as a template for potential punishments. That law carries a maximum penalty of three years in prison.



