Lim had charged that Liu’s recent Facebook post was proof of the former Selangor Exco member’s chauvinism.

In the post, Liu had said regardless of whether Malaysia’s badminton ace Lee Chong Wei or his fierce rival, China’s Lin Dan, won tonight’s Olympic badminton semi-final match, a “Cina” would come out the victor.

Lim had claimed this as evidence that Liu was putting race before nation.

However, Liu told FMT that the snapshot was taken out of context and that his comment was made in the context of a viral joke which said the name “Dato Lee Chong Wei” stood for ”Don’t Let China Win”.

“I was being sarcastic and taking a subtle dig at two media outlets and people who were always focusing on race or nationality rather than the performance of sportsmen.

“The Olympics is not a war between countries; it is about who the best sportsman is,” he said, stressing he was not chauvinist and was colour-blind when it came to race and nationality.

Yesterday, netizens “grilled” Malay dailies Berita Harian and Kosmo over their “poor reporting” and “editorial judgment” on the Olympic silver medal win by Malaysian mixed-doubles badminton pair Chan Peng Soon and Goh Liu Ying.

Tabloid daily Kosmo had frontpaged the win as a disappointing one, with the headline: “Peng Soon-Liu Ying hampakan jutaan rakyat Malaysia” (“Peng Soon- Liu Ying let down millions of Malaysians”).

As for Berita Harian, the flak was over its tweet: “Olympic: Peng Soon-Liu Ying sekadar raih perak” (“Peng Soon – Liu Ying merely secure a silver”).