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aespa Ningning slammed for supporting China at 2022 Olympics, fans say she’s Chinese

China was called out by South Korea for taking credit for Korean culture and allegedly cheating in one of the games at 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics

It is no secret that the relations between China and South Korea are quite tense. It has gotten worse especially at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics as South Korea claimed that China was taking credit for Korean culture like Korean dress ‘hanboks’, folk dance ‘pungmul’ and drums ‘janggus’ at the opening ceremony. A lot of Korean celebrities like K-pop idols have also shown their annoyance at China’s gold medal in short-track speed skating as a Korean participant, Kwak Yoon-gy claimed China cheated. However, we had aespa’s Ningning congratulating China.

On February 5, aespa’s Ningning congratulated the two Chinese medalists for their win at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics. She went online on the messaging app Bubble and shared that the two winners were, in fact, her alumni. It should be noted that Ningning is Chinese. Having come to South Korea and joined SM in 2016, she has often voiced her homesickness. However, the aespa member was also respectful as she shared good wishes for the Korean athletes and participants from other countries. 

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Ningning congratulates Chinese gold medalists

Ningning wrote, “Wow, I’m glad we got the first gold medal tonight. My homeroom teacher just informed me that the two Olympic winners are our alumni, which is an honor. Each and every athlete deserves respect.” But with the strained relationship between China and South Korea, Knetizens slammed the aespa member for supporting China. They sent hate to Ningning and asked SM why they were adding foreign members to their K-pop groups. Many also blamed her for the short-track speed skating cheating scandal.

'The internet is a weird place'

But fans are calling out Knetizens for being xenophobic and illogical towards Ningning supporting her own country. One MY tweeted, “Good morning to everybody except those who still pick on ningning despite her only wanting to congratulate her country and having nothing to do with the recent olympic scandal, if you belong to that category I hope you have the shittiest day instead.” Another shared, “Ningning will root for her home country during the olympics and xenophobic antis will find a way to blame her for chinese politics lmfaoooo the internet is a weird place.” 

One fan posted, “Ningning is a Chinese, and so she has the right to SUPPORT any chinese celebrities or anything related to her own country! Yall knetz are nothing but xen0phobe shts. WE LOVE YOU #NINGNING.” Another MY pointed out, “The fact that ningning is also the member who searches her name the most out of the girls and shes most likely alrdy seen everything... f**k knetz and antis yall suck.” 

One fan said, “I apologize in advance for the woman i’ll become if SM dont do anything to protect ningning from these disgusting mfs.” Another asked, “Can you explain what's wrong with Ningning's words? is it wrong to cheering for her own country? Do Koreans who earn money on different country never do that for their own country?”

This article contains remarks made on the Internet by individual people and organizations. MEAWW cannot confirm them independently and does not support claims or opinions being made online.