Lionel Messi catches CCP nationalism

Lionel Messi is the latest target of CCP nationalism after failing to play in Hong Kong citing medical issues only to play in Japan looking healthy and ready. What exactly happened and why has this become another nationalistic issue in China? Welcome to China Insider, I'm David Zhang. In my view, this was a simple coincidence that turned into an overreaction from Chinese nationalists. Messi had an injury and he wasn't ready to play. The Hong Kong government's plan to propagandize the game failed due to his absence and now the hate toward Messi is growing into a full-blown nationalistic sentiment. After playing against Cristiano Ronaldo's team Al Nasser in Saudi Arabia, Inter Miami traveled to Hong Kong. For Messi's fans in Hong Kong and across China, this was the most anticipated day of their lives. Yet, Messi sat on the sideline for the entire 90 minutes in the February 4th game, prompting to the arena of 40,000 fans who paid as much as $600 USD to see Messi disappointed, asking for a refund by the end of the game. And you can hear the chants. While I understand that fans paying a high price to see their star in action being disappointed is rightly justified, what ensued following the incident, well, that's our focus today. Again, I understand that the fans are disappointed, frustrated, angry that they couldn't see Messi play. To get the relationship out of the way, here's what happened. Hong Kong's city government tasked Tatler Asia, a fashion magazine and agency to host Tatler X-Fest, which is basically their version or the Hong Kong's version of the Super Bowl. And it included star-studded live performances, different events, and the show match between Inter Miami and Hong Kong's soccer team. They worked directly with Inter Miami co-owner David Beckham to arrange this game. Now Messi was contracted to play at least 45 minutes. But that's part of the details. So other than medical or safety reasons, he had to play. And of course, he didn't play a single minute here, citing injury. Now throughout the match, the Hong Kong officials apparently attempted to communicate with Inter Miami to get Messi to play, even if it was the last few minutes, saying that, sure, he can just play until the game's done. But that didn't happen. Then it later on changed to that saying that fine, Messi doesn't play, but can he at least appear in the afterward award show and give a speech? Messi, however, did not do any of that, prompting to speculation that he did so out of protest of the city's politicization of this event. And that's in an attempt to paint Hong Kong, of course, in a positive light, following the CCP's takeover. Messi, however, did not help them achieve that. And this was a giant slap in the face for the Hong Kong government, which is now a part of China's control. On Tuesday, Messi was already in Japan, ready for the last friendly match against Miso Kobe. Speculations on whether he would play on Tuesday was essentially the last straw for fans in China and Hong Kong. And it turns out, Messi did play for Japan. It seemed like it was an intentional boycotting of the Hong Kong, which essentially is the Chinese government, and after all, after this video surfaced showing that Messi, after the initial game, with both hands in his pockets, skipping the rest of the team lining up to shake the hands of Hong Kong executive, or as I like to call, butcher of Hong Kong, Jiang Li's hand. Now, is it really that simple that Messi is a secret anti-CCP guy? Well, possible. Some of the evidence suggests so. Now, while Messi is known for his hands in pockets, especially during award speeches when he's on stage, this action of going around Jiang Li is still quite significant, especially in connection of what happens next. This action was picked up by CCP bargaining dog Hu Xijian on Twitter. He questions why Messi would play in Japan and not in Hong Kong, and they're clearly trying to direct the nationalistic feelings here toward Messi. On Chinese social media, former soccer stars in China, essentially riding up the sentiment, the focus on that video, clearly it shows that Messi was in an IDGAF mood. Now, it turns out, Messi did play in Japan, as I said, full 30 minutes at that too. Messi and his teammate also looked much happier in Japan compared to Hong Kong, and once these image and videos were public, that was essentially the end of it, just a full-blown nationalistic reaction in China. Now, here are two videos comparing their faces while they're in Hong Kong in this one, and then this is while they're in Japan. Clearly they look much happier. Of course, this was not received well at all on Chinese social media. Weibo's current hot search terms are filled with topics related to Messi, from him shaming China to Cristiano Ronaldo being better, to downright conspiracy theories about why he isn't playing. While some say that he's being used as a distraction to sway eyes away from the Chinese stock market and the Chinese economy, others are saying that the CIA was involved in sabotaging the game. Hong Kong official Yip has even accused Messi's situation as a behind-the-scene black hand, aka, hint hint, the US government being involved, just pinning everything on the CIA. Well, that's exactly what the fragile hearts of mainland Chinese people have done, making this entire thing about Messi being anti-China, especially given the fact that he also played in Japan afterwards. Now, in my view, aside from disappointing fans, which is terrible, Messi may have unintentionally become an anti-CCP icon. Of course, I think he wasn't doing this on purpose. The key here is unintentional, right? But before we continue, here's a sponsored video from Puritan. If there's one supplement you want to get incorporated into your diet, it's a good omega-3 supplement. It's the best all-around defender for your health. It reduces inflammation, cholesterol, improves eyesight, and reduces risk for heart problems, as well as helps with joint pain, among other benefits. Today, I want to introduce you to Puritan's green vegetables. Puritan gets their ingredients straight from the high mountains of South Korea, and the omega oils are extracted from purslane and perilla seeds. It's 100% vegan. Now, personally, I've been using omega for about 9 years, close to 10 years now. I've recently switched to Puritan for about a few weeks now. Here's why. 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Use my code DZ2023 and you can receive free shipping globally. Check out my link in the description and comment today. Alright, let's continue to why I think so. Last year, on Xi Jinping's birthday, Messi was in Beijing. He played the full 90 minutes in front of Xi Jinping for the Argentina's national team. And that was the day after he was held at the Beijing airport for almost a whole day because he carried only his Spanish passport and not the Argentinian one. While Taiwan didn't require visas for the Spanish passport, China did, prompting to Messi asking, is Taiwan not a part of China? Maybe he's developed some resentment towards the Chinese government, who knows, but I seriously doubt that Messi is so anti-CCP to the point that he would sit out a Hong Kong game in protest, especially one that was seemingly confirming that he would play it. And this seems quite counterproductive and would probably anger fans. Instead, he could have made some public statement regarding supporting Hong Kong's democracy or something else. There's much better ways out there. Still, nothing explains why Messi would not play in Hong Kong. So to me, it's not a black and white as to Messi being anti-CCP or anti-Hong Kong's pro-CCP government. But the key here is that Messi is now so tied to shaming China that, as the Chinese saying goes, jumping into the Yellow River wouldn't cleanse away his charges. So you know, this is sort of the, I guess you would say, because of an it factor, right? And that is this guy, Javier Milet. Remember, last June, when Messi played in China, they were still kowtowing to the CCP and they played on Xi's birthday because the last Argentinian administration was pro-CCP. Now that Milet has come on with his anti-communist stance to make Argentina great again, maybe that's why Messi is finally able to not cave to the CCP anymore. Who knows? Okay, that was kind of a joke, but seriously, no one can explain why he would just sit there and not play, unless it's actually because of injury. And then, somehow, it got better, right? The hamstring injury in Japan. It just suddenly got better after drinking, I don't know, Japan's nuclear wastewater. Yes, they really do got the magic cure there. Anyways, clearly, the Hong Kong government funded Tatler Asia, the agency to help boost the image of Hong Kong by hosting the game, hoping that it could use Messi's star power to whitewash Hong Kong's image. And it just happens that Messi did the exact opposite of what the pro-CCP government there wanted. Again, intentional or not. And according to Kevin Yang, the director of sports and tourism in Hong Kong, the goal here, quote, was to reflect the advantage of the One Country, Two System in Hong Kong. That's everything you need to know. They were trying to propagandize the games to sell Hong Kong. Everything that the Hong Kong government does is political. And this friendly game turned into a political one because everyone knows that the attempt here is to paint Hong Kong as a friendly city to foreign tourists rather than a city fallen under CCP occupation. And then comes Messi, his action, again, intentional or not, just destroyed all that attempt, slapping the face. He not only did not play, but also refused to shake hands with the devil. On a more serious note, Messi has a few money, so it's not like he needed this extra little bit of change just to play in the games. But he's also known to be quite down to earth with his fans, you know, he loves the sport, the fans, and so I also feel like he wouldn't do this just to disappoint his fans. So, the only explanation that makes sense to me is the injury. So I see that this was not on part of his personal decision, but rather one that was made in consultation with the team's medical staff as well as having the final say by head coach Geraldo Martino. The detail that's interesting is that at the pre-match press conference, a reporter already asked about his ability to play due to the hamstring injury. And he had only participated in the last few minutes of the previous game, which they went 0-6 against the Al-Nasr team in Saudi Arabia on the previous Thursday night. So the coach said that they would assess on Saturday's practice for the Sunday game. Indeed, the decision finally for Messi not to play is, I think, beyond his control. But it falls on the head coach to provide the explanations, which he did, of course, in an interview posted by ESPN Uruguay. He said today Lionel Messi did not play in last Sunday's friendly game in Hong Kong because it would have represented, quote, an enormous risk to his ailments, and added that his improvement allowed him to play in the Tokyo game on Wednesday. He said, quote, if there was any way that they could have played for even a short time, they would have pursued it, but the risk was deemed too high. So it's unlikely that Messi needed to make a few extra bucks despite his injuries, and then the team weighed the options, saying that they decided it was just not worth it for the soccer star to play, especially before the season starts. And so only after reassessing that he was better in Japan did they allow him on. Again, though, the coincidence, I think, is hilarious here. The timing, right? It's just one side wants him to be the perfect spokesperson for the city, and then the other side says, nah, the injury is more important than whoever you are, right? John Lee, Nick Lee, or Sebastian Lee, who cares? We're just going to worry about Messi's health first. It's also interesting because on his Chinese Weibo account, they published an apology citing medical reasons. But just shortly after he published it, he appeared in Japan very healthy and played. So it's a pretty funny, interesting little details. He also never directly apologized, but he did say that he will hope to play in Hong Kong in the future. And they are scheduled to play again in March in China. So we'll see if Messi actually appears in that. I think he will. This again, this whole interaction, right, prompted to more Chinese fans and nationalistic little pinks mixed with Renato fans to basically come together in a total offense against Messi. Chinese internet users want Messi banned from China, even for that upcoming March game. And they say that the Argentinian team is welcome to play, but not Messi. So even if the initial incident is his own involvement, the aftermath has fully transpired into a nationalistic hate against Messi. Which is a good thing, letting him see or get a taste of the Chinese nationalism to help him see through the CCP propaganda. So in my view, again, Messi's unintentionally offending the CCP's fragile hearts. It's great. And that's it today for the episode on Lionel Messi's incident in Hong Kong and what has essentially transpired following that. If you enjoy the content, leave a like, comment below your thoughts, and subscribe to our channel. Until next time, bye bye.