After receiving the James A. Van Fleet Award at the 70th Korean Society Annual Gala, BTS has received a backlash against Chinese netizens for being insensitive in the Korean War.
At the 70th Korean Society Annual Gala, BTS RM’s tackled about the Korean War's 70th anniversary and commemorated the sacrifices of all who were accounted for at war.
BTS RM stated, “We will always remember the history of pain that our two nations (South Korea and the U.S.) shared and the sacrifices of countless men and women. After 70 years, the world we are living in is much closer than before, and boundaries and many aspects are getting more blurry than before.”
However, Chinese netizens have an issue regarding the speech BTS RM delivered as the Chinese were at the side of Communism that backed North Korea and the Soviet Union at the time of the war.
As such, Chinese ARMYs are now targeted by Chinese netizens for RM’s speech, given how sensitive a topic Korean War is within neighboring countries.
While the Korean War is not a strongly censored topic, today's discussion is still frowned upon. Furthermore, Chinese netizens are waiting for a public apology from the group and its company for this debacle.
BTS-Related Products Banned In China
While Big Hit Entertainment is still yet to respond to the BTS speech at the 70th Korean Society Annual Gala, the criticism has taken to another new level with Samsung China and Fila China taking down BTS-promotional products such as the Samsung Galaxy S20+ from their original website.
Also, Fila China removed all BTS-related products from its Weibo account. Chinese netizens have trended “Fila’s official Weibo clears out all BTS related content” at number 21 and pushed the group to deliver an apology.
For now, ARMYs from China are still waiting for Big Hit Entertainment and BTS to deliver a public apology for the remarks at the James A. Van Fleet Award speech.