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.
