Vivian Kong said she would quit her fencing career days after controversy erupted over her apparent support for Beijing’s crackdown on Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement.
Gold medalist Vivian Kong Man Wai of Hong Kong poses for photos during the awarding ceremony for Women's Epee Individual at the Olympic Games in Paris, France, on July 27, 2024.
Kong hasn’t publicly commented on the episode and didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The 30-year-old Stanford graduate said in an Instagram post she would start a charity to promote sports to children. The paper, submitted to Renmin University in Beijing in 2021, argued that protesters’ “chaos and illegal acts” threatened national security. It hailed afor eliminating “anti-China and anti-Hong Kong powers” linked to the 2014 movement, where demonstrators blocked key thoroughfares to wrest political concessions from authorities.
The clampdown led to the jailing of dozens of democracy advocates, and a subsequent rewriting of election rules all but ensured only pro-Beijing candidates could run for office. Law left the city for London, where he was granted political asylum.The debate over Kong has divided the city, with those lamenting a loss of political freedoms disavowing her and those supporting Beijing’s action backing the fencer.
“The rabid attacks on Vivian’s political beliefs are an ugly reflection of the perversity and deformity of these fawning puppets of external powers,” said Regina Ip, an official adviser.TIME may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.
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