IVE singer Jang Won-young receives backlash from Chinese netizens after calling Hong Kong a 'country'

Girl group IVE member Jang Won-young is facing backlash from Chinese media outlets and netizens after referring to Hong Kong as a “country.”

Singer Jang Won-young of girl group IVE takes part in a skincare brand event held in eastern Seoul on Dec. 8, 2025. [NEWS1]

Girl group IVE member Jang Won-young is facing backlash from Chinese media outlets and netizens after referring to Hong Kong as a “country.”

Jang made the remark in a recent video titled “MAMA 2025 Behind” uploaded to IVE’s official YouTube channel. In the video, she says, “We should have a good dinner,” adding, “I like Hong Kong. There’s a lot of good food. Hong Kong is one of my favorite countries.”

Chinese netizens reacted strongly to the comment, arguing that “Hong Kong is merely a region of China, not a country.”

China maintains the “One China” principle as a core pillar of its foreign policy, defining Hong Kong as a special administrative region under its sovereignty. Hong Kong was under British rule from 1841 before being returned to China in 1997.

Online criticism from Chinese netizens includes comments such as “This denies our sovereignty” and “Korean idols need to study history.”

On Weibo, China’s largest social networking service, hashtags such as “#IVEGetOutofChina” have emerged, intensifying criticism toward Jang.

The Global Times also weighed in, saying that “Korean idols lack an understanding of political sensitivities despite knowing the importance of the Chinese market,” and criticized what it called a “double standard of profiting from Chinese fans’ consumption while failing to respect China’s sovereignty.”

The video containing Jang’s remarks has since been deleted from IVE’s official YouTube channel.

This is not the first time Jang has drawn backlash from Chinese netizens. In 2022, she faced criticism after posting photos from Paris Fashion Week in which she wore a binyeo, a traditional Korean hairpin shaped like a phoenix, with some Chinese netizens accusing her of “stealing Chinese culture.”

BY KIM MIN-YOUNG [kim.minyoung5@joongang.co.kr]