Days earlier, after China’s Liu Shiwen and her partner Xu Xin lost the table tennis mixed doubles finals to Jun Mizutani and Mima Ito of Japan, Liu Shiwen bowed on national television and offered a tearful apology for failing to meet the country’s expectations.

The pair, who are ranked third in the world, were subjected to similar abuse, partly for failing to bag gold in China’s specialist event.

There exists a pattern to Chinese ultranationalism that also is heavily dependent on the opponent. The losses to Japan and Taiwan, two countries with a long history of strained tensions with China, appeared to trigger bigger backlashes.

On Weibo, social media users openly mocked the Japanese and Taiwanese athletes. After their victories, the abuse reached their Instagram and Facebook feeds.