China–Hong Kong football rivalry China–Hong Kong football rivalry The China–Hong Kong football rivalry is a sports rivalry between the national association football teams of the People's Republic of China and Hong Kong. The rivalry has been exacerbated by Hong Kong's status as a Special Administrative Region of China, which means that it does not practise communism as on the mainland, a legacy of having been under British rule until the transfer of sovereignty in 1997. China and Hong Kong have been playing each other in football matches since a friendly in Hong Kong in 1978. In 1985, Hong Kong, then a British dependent territory,
British Hong Kong to China, even though there had been several upsurges of Chinese nationalism. He explained: In the 1920s, the working class Chinese of Hong Kong did not have a good reason to rally around the Hong Kong government, and they were more susceptible to appeals based on Chinese nationalism. Consequently, the call of the Communists was basically heeded by the working men, and their actions practically paralysed the colony for a year. By the [end of the] 1960s, however, the attempts by the Hong Kong government to maintain stability and good order which helped improve everyone's living conditions, and ... the