Angry Chinese netizens slam Winter Olympics coach Viktor Ahn after wife’s Taiwan gaff, dairy brand Junlebao cuts ties
- South Korean, who helped China’s national short-track team win four medals at the Beijing Winter Olympics, caught in Taiwan controversy
- ‘My family and I have always supported the one-China principle. I hope to get everyone’s understanding,’ Ahn posted on Weibo
That result earned Ahn an outpouring of support on Chinese social media – a rare feat for South Korean athletes. That support has now all but vanished.
The South Korean-born Russian skater found himself at the centre of a controversy after the website of his wife’s beauty brand described Taiwan as a country.
Nari, a skincare and cosmetics company founded in 2017 by his wife Woo Na-ri, has been forced to issue a public apology about the incident they attributed to a third party vendor. But the damage had already been done.
Posts about the website quickly circulated online and comments questioning Ahn’s political stance on Taiwan’s sovereignty became a trending topic with some 20 million views on Sina Weibo. Chinese dairy brand Junlebao even announced it had cut its long-standing ties with the world champion.
“I’m sorry about the lack of management on my family member’s company website and the wrong information shown due to its default settings. The error has been fixed,” Ahn wrote on Weibo.