Most of the five stars on the Chinese flags being used at medal ceremonies at the Rio Olympics are misaligned, officials said, prompting a diplomatic protest and online fury.
Chinese internet users were quick to detect a “plot” against the world’s most populous country, which came second in the medals table at London 2012, and branded the Brazilian organisers the “worst ever”.
The Chinese flag features one large star — representing the Communist Party — half surrounded by four smaller stars tilted to point towards the centre of the bigger one.
But the small stars on the Rio flags, including the one lifted by Chinese fencer Lei Sheng at the opening ceremony on Friday, all point upwards.
Organisers of the Rio Olympics “deeply apologised” for erecting the “flawed” flags, after the city’s Chinese consulate-general complained, an online post by the mission said on Monday.
Reports in foreign media, however, suggest that that Olympic officials believe the Chinese national team should be blamed.
“All the flags used by the Rio 2016 committee are approved by the National Olympic Committees,” a spokeswoman for the committee told Reuters. “We are working with the Chinese delegation to find a solution to this issue.”
Earlier reports from China on Sunday suggested that the flags had been domestically made. But that had been ruled out by officials on Monday, it was reported.
