While Argentina lifted the trophy at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, whether or not the trophy was made in China is a hot topic among Chinese netizens. After being eliminated from the World Cup finals, China continues to praise itself, saying that the World Cup in Qatar was impossible without China.
On the 19th, on Chinese social network services (SNS) such as Weibo, posts by soccer fans claiming that “the owner of the World Cup championship is China” are coming up one following another.
The FIFA World Cup, the winning cup of the World Cup, is awarded to the winning country during the awards ceremony and then immediately retrieved by the International Football Federation (FIFA). Instead, counterfeits are delivered to the winning country. In response, some soccer fans in China are raising an absurd claim that China, a country that produces imitations, is the main character. It has not yet been confirmed whether this counterfeit is made in China.
China is the biggest sponsor of this World Cup. According to Global Data, a British data analysis company, the four Chinese companies that participated as sponsors for the World Cup in Qatar, including Mengnu, Vivo, and Hisense, made $1.395 billion (regarding 18 trillion won) in donations, exceeding $1.1 billion of American companies.
It is also said that 70% of Qatar World Cup-related items, including millions of soccer balls, are made in Yiwu, Zhejiang Province, China. Lusail Stadium, the main stadium in Doha, and 974 Stadium, which was built using 974 shipping containers, are also made in China. Nearly half (6,000) of the total of 13,000 fan villages set up as World Cup lodgings were also made by Chinese companies.
China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency reported on the same day, “This tournament cannot be completed without praising China.” .
Citing Song Xiangqing, a researcher at Beijing Normal University, the media said, “The World Cup is the perfect stage for Chinese-made products,” adding, “The popularity of these products speaks to the fact that Chinese manufacturers have entered the global high-end market.”
Hankyung.com reporter Shin Hyun-bo greaterfool@hankyung.com