Protesters Tear Up Chinese Flag During Rally in Seoul over Olympic Refereeing

A South Korean civic activist rips the Chinese flag during a rally near the Chinese Embassy in central Seoul on Feb. 11, 2022. (Yonhap)

SEOUL, Feb. 11 (Korea Bizwire) — A conservative South Korean civic group tore up the Chinese flag during a rally near the Chinese Embassy in central Seoul on Friday to protest controversial refereeing against some of South Korea’s short track speed skaters at the Beijing Winter Olympics.

Members of the civic group, which calls itself the Righteous People, held a protest rally in front of the Seoul Central Post Office near the Chinese Embassy in the Myeongdong area, demanding that China apologize for what it calls biased refereeing at the Olympics.

They ripped up the Chinese flag, known as the Five-star Red Flag, by hand.

Lee Eun-taek, head of the civic group, said he got very angry to see China undermining the spirit of the Olympics after culturally appropriating “hanbok” (traditional Korean clothes) and kimchi from Korea.

A woman, who introduced herself as a 20-something who once dreamed of becoming an athlete, said unfair refereeing can break the dreams of young people and condemned the South Korean government for not saying a single word of protest to the Chinese government.

In the men’s 1,000m semifinals on Monday, South Korea’s Hwang Dae-heon and Lee June-seo each got disqualified from their respective heats for an illegal pass and lane change, respectively.

Those decisions each allowed Chinese skaters to advance to the final, and the host country ended up collecting gold and silver medals.

(Yonhap)