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Japan has beaten China in table tennis mixed doubles in the Tokyo Olympics on Monday (July 26), ending China's winning streak since 2004.
Chinese netizens upset at alleged hypocrisy from Japanese referee
Chinese social media users then took to popular microblogging site Weibo to express their anger at the defeat, with many pointing out the alleged double standards from the Japanese referee.
They pointed out that Japanese players Jun Mizutani and Mima Ito weren't penalised when the former blew on the table tennis ball, and the latter touched the table before serving.
As part of new rules introduced at the games to stop the spread of Covid-19, players were not allowed to blow air on the ball or wipe the sweat from their hands on the game table.
Both are habitual moves that some table tennis players do.
However, some commenters did point out that the result of the match had nothing to do with whether the Japanese players were served a yellow card or not.
Others who disagreed had since responded by saying they are not protesting against Japan's victory against China, but are simply raising the issue of alleged bias from the host country against the Chinese team.
Some justifications
Netizens on Weibo also praised national table tennis star Ma Long for overcoming the new rules by blowing air on his hand, but without holding the ball.
In addition, they highlighted that the arena had shrunk by around 30 per cent, which was something that Liu Guoliang, president of the Chinese Table Tennis Association, pointed out previously.
The size of the arena could potentially affect the range of movements of the athletes, who might have to run a greater distance to return a ball from their opponent.
Nevertheless, some netizens continued to encourage the Chinese national players, Xu Xin and Liu Shiwen, and thanked them for the hard work they put into training for the games.
Offended at Hongkongers who cheered when Japan won
But several netizens were upset at Hongkongers who clapped and cheered when Japan won the match.
They were reacting to a clip of a group of people apparently watching the match in a shopping mall in Hong Kong.
Image via Weibo
Among them, many could be seen expressing their joy when the Japanese team won.
Chinese commenters were upset to see this as from their perspective, they thought that Hongkongers should take the side of the Chinese national team instead of Japan's.
Their reasoning is that Hong Kong is a city that belongs to China, and is made of up people who share the same ethnicity.
"This dude was clapping so hard. Do you want everyone to celebrate at your family's burial?"
"Get the hell out of China."
"It's so hard... these bunch of people are never going to change no matter what. Seems like there's nothing much we can do other than getting pissed off on the Internet."
"(Swear word), no matter how delighted you are, 'March of the Volunteers' (China's national anthem) is still the song that's played even if Hong Kong wins."
"Great, everyone gets a bucket of toxic wastewater each as a reward."
"The boy in the middle (who cheered) was so young..."
Following a crackdown by Beijing and the local government on the city's dissidents under the Beijing-imposed national security law, there has been a surge in Hongkongers leaving the city.
Many cited reasons such as Hong Kong not being the same home they grew up in under tighter control from Beijing, and seeing no future in the city for the younger generation.
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Top image adapted via Weibo