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China fans desert K-pop star Siwon for 'liking' Hong Kong tweet

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Agence France-Presse

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C562.623,77.658 564.297,76.634 565.965,74.965 C567.633,73.296 568.659,71.625 569.425,69.651 C570.167,67.743 570.674,65.562 570.82,62.369 C570.966,59.17 571,58.147 571,50 C571,41.851 570.966,40.831 570.82,37.631"></path></g></g></g></svg></a></div><div style="padding-top:8px"><div style="color:#3897f0;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-weight:550;line-height:18px"><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B2kaQ5SpmAF/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" style="background:#FFFFFF;line-height:0;padding:0 0;text-align:center;text-decoration:none;width:100%" target="_blank">View this post on Instagram</a></div></div><div style="padding:12.5% 0"> </div><div style="display:flex;flex-direction:row;margin-bottom:14px;align-items:center"><div><div style="background-color:#F4F4F4;border-radius:50%;height:12.5px;width:12.5px;transform:translateX(0px) translateY(7px)"> </div><div style="background-color:#F4F4F4;height:12.5px;transform:rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px);width:12.5px;flex-grow:0;margin-right:14px;margin-left:2px"> </div><div style="background-color:#F4F4F4;border-radius:50%;height:12.5px;width:12.5px;transform:translateX(9px) translateY(-18px)"> </div></div><div style="margin-left:8px"><div style="background-color:#F4F4F4;border-radius:50%;flex-grow:0;height:20px;width:20px"> </div><div style="width:0;height:0;border-top:2px solid transparent;border-left:6px solid #f4f4f4;border-bottom:2px solid transparent;transform:translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg)"> </div></div><div style="margin-left:auto"><div style="width:0px;border-top:8px solid #F4F4F4;border-right:8px solid transparent;transform:translateY(16px)"> </div><div style="background-color:#F4F4F4;flex-grow:0;height:12px;width:16px;transform:translateY(-4px)"> </div><div style="width:0;height:0;border-top:8px solid #F4F4F4;border-left:8px solid transparent;transform:translateY(-4px) translateX(8px)"> </div></div></div><div style="display:flex;flex-direction:column;flex-grow:1;justify-content:center;margin-bottom:24px"><div style="background-color:#F4F4F4;border-radius:4px;flex-grow:0;height:14px;margin-bottom:6px;width:224px"> </div><div style="background-color:#F4F4F4;border-radius:4px;flex-grow:0;height:14px;width:144px"> </div></div><p style="color:#c9c8cd;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:17px;margin-bottom:0;margin-top:8px;overflow:hidden;padding:8px 0 7px;text-align:center;text-overflow:ellipsis;white-space:nowrap"><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B2kaQ5SpmAF/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" style="color:#c9c8cd;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;line-height:17px;text-decoration:none" target="_blank">A post shared by 최시원 (@siwonchoi)</a> on <time dateTime="2019-09-18T22:13:41+00:00" style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:17px">Sep 18, 2019 at 3:13pm PDT</time></p></div></blockquote><div><script async="" src="https://www.instagram.com/embed.js" type="text/javascript"></script></div><p>A South Korean pop star has become the latest celebrity to spark anger on the Chinese internet after he &quot;liked&quot; a tweet about the divisive issue of pro-democracy unrest in Hong Kong.</p><p>Choi Siwon, a member of popular K-pop boy band Super Junior, was forced to apologize twice after liking a post on Twitter by South Korean newspaper The Chosun Ilbo about the Hong Kong protests.</p><p>Twitter is blocked in China, but opinions that rile Beijing regularly make their way across the &quot;Great Firewall&quot; of censorship and go viral on Chinese social media.</p><p>Choi apologized on China&#x27;s Twitter-like Weibo platform Sunday night, saying he hoped there would soon be an end to &quot;the violence and chaos&quot; in Hong Kong.</p><p>&quot;Since the controversy caused by this behaviour makes you all feel disgusted and disappointed, I express my sincerest apologies to all of you,&quot; he wrote on his Weibo account, where he has 16.5 million followers.</p><p>Choi also unliked the Twitter post.</p><p>He apologized again on Tuesday, writing on Weibo he felt &quot;really sorry for my wrong behaviour on Twitter recently, which has made everyone feel disappointed and hurt everyone&#x27;s feelings.&quot;</p><p>&quot;I have never denied... Hong Kong is an integral part of China!&quot; he wrote.</p><p>By Tuesday afternoon, the hashtag &quot;Choi Siwon&quot; was the number one topic on Weibo, with 260 million views.</p><p>A Choi fan group in China announced on Weibo it was closing as a result of the fracas.</p><p>&quot;No one and nothing can shake our own position about patriotism,&quot; the group posted Monday.</p><p>The Chinese state-run Global Times said Choi had &quot;liked&quot; a post that &quot;glamorized Hong Kong rioters.&quot;</p><p>Other online users also expressed their anger.</p><p>&quot;(I) will not forgive you, because my country is more important,&quot; wrote one.</p><p>Fans also accused Choi of not being sincere in his apology, and criticized him for posting it only to Weibo and not to other platforms.</p><p>Choi had already faced controversy in South Korea when a renowned restaurateur died after being attacked by his family&#x27;s pet dog in 2017.</p><p>A number of international brands and celebrities have found themselves facing Chinese anger after being perceived to adopt a stance on the pro-democracy protests that have rocked Hong Kong for months.</p><p>One of the most high-profile rows saw popular Houston Rockets basketball games pulled from the air by state broadcasters after the Rockets general manager posted a later-deleted tweet supporting the protesters.</p>

<p>A South Korean pop star has become the latest celebrity to spark anger on the Chinese internet after he "liked" a tweet about the divisive issue of pro-democracy unrest in Hong Kong.<br /> </p>

A South Korean pop star has become the latest celebrity to spark anger on the Chinese internet after he "liked" a tweet about the divisive issue of pro-democracy unrest in Hong Kong.