Rio 2016 officials have apologized for mistakenly raising the wrong Chinese national flag during medal ceremonies.

Complaints in China surfaced after stars on the Chinese flags raised during the swimming and shooting medal ceremonies were incorrectly positioned. Although the Chinese flag was red and had a large yellow and four smaller stars, the smaller stars are supposed to be oriented towards the larger star at a 36-degree angle instead of being parallel to each other.

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"We do understand that there is a problem with the flag," Mario Andrada, Rio 2016 Olympic Games executive communications director, said on Monday. "It's very small. You have to be very familiar with the Chinese flag to understand that. However, we need to correct it."

Chinese netizens were furious and expressed their fury via Weibo. "A flag is a country's symbol, we can't tolerate any problems," one fan wrote, according to Shanghaiist.

Earlier reports that all the flags for the Rio Olympics Games came from Chinese companies were quickly brushed off. A spokesperson for the Rio Olympics organizing committee stated that the flags were not produced in China, but in Brazil.

The confusion followed after state news agency CCTV boasted that the items used by the Chinese team in the Rio Olympics were all made in China. Initial reports also pointed to Zhejiang Jinyu Textile Company as the flag manufacturer. However, the company denied rumors, saying "We are Chinese, how would we manufacture a faulty flag?"

Meanwhile, Andrada said the flags for the Rio Olympics were approved by China before production.

"This problem was discovered during the weekend. Yesterday we managed to contact the company producing these flags and they are producing a bunch of flags correctly now, so the first flags should be delivered here shortly," Andrada said on Monday. He added that the Rio 2016 Organizing Committee is investigating the issue.

TagsRio 2016, Rio Olympics, China flag, Chinese flag, awarding ceremonies