Beijing 2022: Japanese Yuzuru Hanyu fans ask Chinese for support after Olympics stops overseas spectators
- Chinese embassy in Japan joins in on social media after figure skater’s supporters ask locals to cheer him on at Winter Games
- ‘Feel Sorry for Yuzuru Hanyu’ trended on Weibo after star missed out on gold at 2019 Grand Prix Final
China’s embassy in Japan and government spokesperson Hua Chunying have promised that there will be support for Japanese figure skater Yuzuru Hanyu at next year’s Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, after the skater’s fans called on Chinese fans to support him as foreign fans are banned.
Following the announcement on Thursday that the Beijing Games will not be open to overseas fans, Japanese social media users expressed their disappointment at not being able to travel and called on fans in China to support the two-time Olympic gold medallist.
The Chinese embassy in Japan then sent a tweet from their official Twitter account promising support for the skater.
“The voices of our fans have also arrived here. During the Beijing Winter Olympics session, we will firmly support the Japanese team with Japanese people living in China and Japanese volunteers at the tournament,” the account wrote on Thursday.
This captioned a tweet sharing the headline from a Mainichi newspaper article on Hanyu: “Hanyu fan ‘local support, entrusted to Chinese people’ Beijing Olympics, seeing off overseas customers”.
China spokesperson Hua Chunying, Director of the Foreign Ministry Information Department of China, then added their support in response to the embassy’s tweet.
