Global Times newspaper refers to Australia’s history as a penal colony in response to swimmer criticising Chinese athlete over doping

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

A mouthpiece for China’s Communist party has joined the country’s netizens in heaping abuse on Australian swimmer Mack Horton, after Horton disparaged his Chinese counterpart Sun Yang during the Rio Olympics for a past doping incident.

“Whatever the real reasons, Horton has no reason to feel proud of what he said about Sun,” said a commentary in the newspaper Global Times on Monday. “Actually we think Australia should feel embarrassed with Horton’s remarks.”



The commentary went on to castigate Australia in general.

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“In many serious essays written by Westerners, Australia is mentioned as a country at the fringes of civilization. In some cases, they refer to the country’s early history as Britain’s offshore prison. This suggests that no one should be surprised at uncivilized acts emanating from the country.”

Sun enjoys enormous celebrity status in China, and his supporters were predictably disappointed when he lost to Horton in the 400m freestyle on Saturday. That disappointment turned to outrage when Horton again called Sun a “drug cheat” after the race.

Sun served a three-month ban in 2014 for traces of trimetazidine, which the swimmer said he was taking for heart palpitations. After calling Sun a drug cheat earlier in the week, Horton again used the term in the post-race press conference, even with Sun sitting next to him.

Global Times (@globaltimesnews) Is #Horton silly or is the Australian media evil? Or it just has a different moral standard https://t.co/G3fAbSJEXs pic.twitter.com/17Bdiph9fE

Horton’s comments were a top trending topic Sunday and Monday on Sina Weibo, China’s main social media platform, with one netizen expressing hope that Horton would be “killed by a local kangaroo”.

“Horton has to apologize to Sun Yang,” said another commenter, named @yuuubaby. “Did Australia’s Horton have such a bad upbringing? No quality! An athlete has no sports morality! How is he qualified to win the gold medal! How can you slander us!!”

Another suggested Horton was using a devious tactic with his comments.

“He knew Sun Yang had more games to play, so he used this trick to attack Sun Yang’s mentality,” the netizen wrote.

The Chinese take great national pride in their Olympians, but the Rio games have not got off to a great start for Team China.

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Last week, the International Sport Press Association reported that Chinese hurdler Shi Dongpeng and his camera man were robbed during an elaborate and unsavoury hoax. When the two men arrived at their hotel in Rio, a man vomited on Shi, and when Shi went to clean himself up, someone stole their belongings.

Chinese broadcaster CCTV has also complained about the Chinese flags that were used over the weekend during ceremonies at the Rio games. The small stars on the Chinese flag are supposed to all point toward the flag’s large star, but at the Rio games, the flags have small stars all pointing upward.

“The national flag is the symbol of a country. No mistakes are allowed!” CCTV declared.

Chinese state media initially reported the flags were made in China, but the Chinese consulate in Rio later challenged that claim, stating the flags were manufactured elsewhere.

• This article was amended on 10 August 2016 to make clear that the Chinese consulate denied claims the faulty flags were made in China.