The British Council in Hong Kong has removed advertisements in a metro station bearing the British flag over concerns that they could be interpreted as a symbol of resistance to the Hong Kong government.

Posters advertising a British Council educational exhibition were installed in Hong Kong's Admiralty station last week but were taken down shortly afterwards because they were seen as "open to misinterpretation", a British Council spokeswoman told the South China Morning Post.

One advert showed a union flag, a portrait of William Shakespeare and the words "Literature is GREAT".

The spokeswoman said: "The GREAT campaign is being used to promote the British Council education exhibition. As a global campaign it has uniform messaging for all markets. Given some of the wording has been subject to misinterpretation in Hong Kong it was decided to remove those posters a few days early in order not to detract from the positive nature and overall success of the campaign."

The colonial-era flag of Hong Kong, which combines the union flag symbol with a seal depiction representing Hong Kong, has been used, in the past few months, as a symbol of opposition to the territory's chief executive, the politician Leung Chun-ying.

Many of Hong Kong's seven million residents regard Leung as a Beijing loyalist who is intent on surreptitiously eroding the territory's free press, its liberal education system and the independent judiciary.

Anti-government protesters waved the flag this month as a symbol of nostalgia for the relatively prosperous last two decades of British rule before Beijing assumed control over the territory in 1997.

The South China Morning Post reported that the adverts had sparked a heated debate online about the legacy of British colonial governance. "UK has always seemed to mean less at home than to its own nationals and admirers abroad," it quoted a Facebook contribution.

It is unclear whether the Hong Kong government pressured the British Council to remove the adverts. The organisation has not responded to inquiries.

According to a synopsis on the website of the British consulate-general of Hong Kong, the GREAT Britain campaign is "the country's biggest ever overseas campaign to boost worldwide awareness of the UK", which aims to attract "an extra four million visitors and a £1bn boost for business over the next four years".