KUALA LUMPUR, July 4 — Celebrity Jacky Cheung has come under fire from Chinese social media users for failing to mention the word 'motherland' in his congratulatory message to celebrate Hong Kong's 25th anniversary of being returned to China.
The 61-year-old omitted the word during a clip that was aired by Chinese channel CCTV-6 on July 1, 163.com reported.
To add fire to the fuel, Cheung ended his message by saying Xiang Gang Jia You (Support Hong Kong).
After the clip was aired, the comment section was abuzz and social media users accused him of being unpatriotic.
The clip was later removed by the channel after negative comments outnumbered the positive ones.
state media CCTV aired this video of top Hong Kong singer Jacky Cheung (張學友) for the 25th anniversary of HK’s handover to China on July 1 but the clip was quickly censored: Jacky’s words were deemed not patriotic cuz he made no mention of 祖國 (motherland) or 回歸 (return). pic.twitter.com/lSecjnK0Ze
— Byron Wan (@Byron_Wan) July 2, 2022
Cheung later released a statement to address the controversy where he clarified he is one that loves the country.
"I am a Chinese who loves Hong Kong," Sina.com reported.
