Hong Kong soccer fans loudly booed China's national anthem at a match Thursday in the Chinese-controlled city, defying Beijing days after Communist leaders tightened penalties for disrespecting the song.
Fans dressed in red in one section of the stadium jeered as the anthem, "March of the Volunteers," was played at the start of a friendly game against Bahrain. Some waved banners reading "Fight for Hong Kong" and "Power for Hong Kong" while security personnel sought to prevent onlookers and some reporters from taking photographs of the banners and fans.
"It is absurd the way we are told what to do," said Ming Cheung, a soccer fan who wore a red T-shirt. "If the government puts down a law dictating how people behave, it means they don't have other means of making people love them."
The long-simmering anthem controversy highlights increasingly tense relations between mainland China and the semiautonomous former British colony, where pro-democracy activists say Beijing is tightening its grip.
It mirrors a similar debate in the United States, where some football players have kneeled on one knee when the "Star Spangled Banner" was played to protest racial inequality, prompting President Donald Trump to urge team owners to fire them.
Anthem jeering reflects the wider concerns of some Hong Kong residents determined to resist mainland China's growing influence on the Cantonese-speaking territory. They're concerned Hong Kong's high autonomy and unique cultural identity are being eroded, as Beijing asserts its authority and reneges on promises to let the city largely run its own affairs.
