HK marches forward thanks to rule of law

China has only one national anthem, March of the Volunteers. The organizers of every sports event know the anthems of participating countries; after all they need to play playing countries' anthems ahead of every match.

So it is no minor offense that before the Chinese team from the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region defeated the Republic of Korea 2-0 at the Asia Rugby Sevens, an annual regional tournament, on Sunday, the organizers at the ROK's Busan Asiad Stadium played a song that was widely sung by troublemakers during the social turmoil in Hong Kong in 2019.

The Hong Kong SAR government said through a press release that the Asian Rugby Football Union has apologized to the Hong Kong Rugby Union, and even confirmed that the latter had submitted the correct national anthem, while blaming "human error" for the goof-up. The Korea Football Association said it took steps to ensure no banners with political messages came up at the stadium.