The man, reportedly in Kuala Lumpur on business, confronted a staff member outside his hotel’s breakfast restaurant after counting flags from dozens of countries and finding no Chinese one among them, the South China Morning Post reported.
Footage of the encounter circulated widely on July 6.
In the clip, he presses a visibly confused worker for an explanation. “If you want to earn money from Chinese people, please fly the national flag of China,” he tells her.
The flags marked the 48 teams heading to the 2026 World Cup, the first edition expanded from 32. China did not make the cut.
Malaysian outlet The Star reported the man was ridiculed across social media once the connection surfaced.
Some read the outburst as clumsy patriotism rather than arrogance.
Many turned the joke back on the team. “World’s second biggest population with 1.4 billion citizens cannot even produce a football team to the World Cup. Hence no flag. Don’t blame us, blame your country,” one commenter wrote.
China sits 91st in FIFA’s June ranking, below Zambia, a country with less than 2% of its population, and just above Bahrain.
Its only World Cup appearance came in 2002, when it lost all three group-stage matches without scoring a goal.
Even the expanded 48-team field could not carry China through Asian qualifying, and the campaign included a 7-0 loss to Japan in 2024.
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