A woman who flew a colonial-era British flag to celebrate Hong Kong claiming Olympic gold has become the first person in the city to be jailed on charges of insulting the Chinese national anthem.   

  Paula Leung, a 42-year-old online journalist, pleaded guilty to the charge and was sentenced to three months in prison on Thursday, Hong Kong public broadcaster RTHK reported.   

  Leung, who said in mitigation that she had autism and learning disabilities, had flown the flag at a shopping mall where a big screen was showing the medal ceremony after Edgar Cheung’s victory at the Tokyo Olympics in July 2021.   

  Large crowds had gathered to celebrate Hong Kong’s second Olympic gold medal and first in fencing, but the scene turned rowdy when the Chinese national anthem was played for the awards ceremony and some booed.   

  Hong Kong, a former British colony, continues to be represented separately from mainland China at the Olympics, despite handing over to Chinese rule in 1997.   

  Cheung’s victory was seen by many as a breakthrough for Hong Kong athletes and a rare moment of unity in a city rocked in recent years by anti-government protests.   

  But his use of the Chinese national anthem – “March of the Volunteers” – to mark his victory was controversial as it was the first time the anthem had been used in an Olympic awards ceremony for a Hong Kong athlete.  When windsurfer Lee Lai-shan took Hong Kong’s only other gold, at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, “God Save The Queen” was played and Hong Kong’s British colonial flag was raised.   

  Pro-democracy protesters in the city have occasionally used symbols from the British colonial era to signal defiance against mainland China’s increasingly tight grip on the semi-autonomous city.   

  Demonstrators often waved the colonial-era flag in pro-democracy demonstrations across the city in 2019, while some of the thousands of Hong Kongers who lined up outside the British consulate to pay tribute to Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II after her death September saw their actions as a subtle form of protest.   

  Public gatherings have been rare since China imposed a national security law in June 2020 to quell increasingly violent pro-democracy protests.   

  In the same month, Hong Kong local authorities introduced legislation making insulting the Chinese national anthem an offense punishable by up to three years in prison and a maximum fine of US$6,400 (HK$50,000).   

  Legislation requires people to “stand solemnly and excommunicate themselves with dignity” when the “March of the Volunteers” is played or sung.