The Sports Federation and Olympic Committee of Hong Kong, China (SFOC) stated on Monday that the Weightlifting Association chairman referring to Hong Kong as a small country is believed to be a careless mistake for now.
Hong Kong, China Weightlifting and Powerlifting Association faced heat over remarks by its chairman referring to Hong Kong as a “small country” during an opening speech on Sunday.
Chairman Josephine Ip Wing-yuk described Hong Kong, in Cantonese, as a “relatively small country” when talking about the development of weightlifting and powerlifting sports. She also categorized the city as “small countries” like Australia.
New People’s Party lawmaker Adrian Pedro Ho King-hong uploaded the relevant clip to the social platform, criticizing Ip for blatantly making Hong Kong independence remarks, finding it unacceptable, and demanding that the government and SFOC follow up.
The Weightlifting Association later issued a statement to apologize, explaining that the chairman only had a slip of the tongue and that what she wanted to express at that time was that the International Weightlifting Federation would allow federations in smaller countries or regions to manage multiple projects.
They stressed that Ip did not mean Hong Kong’s independence and pointed out that the whole world knows Hong Kong is not a country but a part of China and will always oppose all actions that split the country.
The government stated that it takes the relevant incident very seriously, and the SFOC responded that after learning about the incident, it initially agreed that it was a slip of the tongue and would remind its federations under them not to be ambiguous in their discussion of national sovereignty when participating in activities.
Hong Kong United Times丨香港聯合時報丨HKUT 