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.

While the players didn't react to the wrong song, reports said that some among the audience who were from Hong Kong sang along. This calls for a probe to know who these home-haters with evil designs are.

The incident also shows that the home-haters have so little influence in Hong Kong now that they have to go outside of the SAR's jurisdiction to carry out such stunts. With the National Security Law coming into effect two years ago, nobody dares utter "independence" or advocate violence in Hong Kong any more.

The fact that these troublemakers can only think of creating mischief outside of Hong Kong also shows how little influence they wield as the new law has emboldened the peace-loving Hong Kong residents against the home-haters. It is time these home-haters gave up their evil designs and joined the common prosperity of Hong Kong.