David Beckham's Facebook Post 'Great 48 hours in China' Upsets Hong Kong Netizens

(source: Paulblank via Wikimedia Commons)

When it comes to China, the phrase 'words matter' is definitely true, as ex-footballer David Beckham discovered a few days ago.

On March 23, the former captain of the English national team visited Shanghai to take part in events organized by a life insurance company, which had appointed David Beckham as its global ambassador. On Friday he travelled to Hong Kong to promote the company.

At the end of his trip, Beckham published a Facebook post:

'Great 48 hours in China'

Beckham's apparently harmless post, however, caused a backlash. Hong Kong netizens criticized the ex-footballer for implying that Hong Kong and China are one and the same thing. Hong Kong netizens wrote comments below the post to point out Beckham's error.

Beckham eventually edited his post, writing 'Shanghai and Hong Kong' instead of 'China'.

However, some mainland Chinese netizens defended Beckham's original post:

The internet spat highlights the tensions between Hong Kong and China, and symbolically occurred at the eve of Hong Kong Chief Executive elections in which unpopular pro-Beijing candidate Carrie Lam was elected by a committee of 1,194 members.

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