The 2026 Table Tennis Asian Championships concluded yesterday (Oct. 25) in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan. At the men's doubles award ceremony held yesterday afternoon, the organising committee made an outrageous and major error: when Chinese national team players Wen Ruibo and Yuan Licen were preparing to receive their awards, the large screen behind them mistakenly displayed the Japanese flag. The two young Chinese players left the podium on the spot in protest, winning praise from netizens.
In the men's doubles final of this Asian Championships, Lin Shidong and Huang Youzheng won the championship, while Wen Ruibo and Yuan Licen took the runner-up spot. The Chinese team dominantly swept both gold and silver, and the Chinese flag should have been raised and the Chinese national anthem played at the award ceremony, but the on-site large screen mistakenly displayed the flag of Japan for the runners-up.
In the video, when Wen Ruibo and Yuan Licen stepped onto the podium, they keenly noticed that the flag on the background screen was wrong. Faced with a serious error that crossed the bottom line, they did not choose to acquiesce. Wen Ruibo's reaction was very strong — he spread his hands in anger to express his dissatisfaction, and then the two directly walked off the podium, refusing to accept their awards against the backdrop of the wrong flag.
Under the firm stance of the Chinese players in defending their rights, the event organising committee urgently switched the large screen, ultimately replacing all flag displays with the event's official background image. Wen Ruibo and Yuan Licen then returned to the podium to complete the proceedings, and the Chinese national anthem sounded normally when the champion pair took the stage.
After the incident came to light, netizens also expressed strong dissatisfaction and demanded a public apology from the organising committee. As of now, the event organisers have not yet issued an official statement on this flag display error.
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