In an interview with the U.K.’s Daily Mail Online on Aug. 1, an overseer of a Rio Olympic stadium said that she could not guarantee the venue would be done in time for the opening ceremony on the night of Aug. 5.

Daily Mail Online reported that the Lagoa Stadium, which is hosting the rowing and canoeing competitions, remains “partially shrouded in scaffolding, while bags of garbage, orange cones and piles of dry leaves litter one of the entrances.” The overseer, who declined to give her name, said, “problems with suppliers has made finishing the stadium take longer than expected,” according to the report.

The concerns and statements seemed fairly standard and inoffensive, but what the overseer said next rubbed many Chinese people the wrong way. The woman explained, "[The Olympic-branded] banners, they are coming from China, so getting them up is taking a long, long time.”

Fortunately, Chinese netizens are taking the slight in stride, using it as a springboard for some good-natured online ribbing:

"So that means you guys are using the banners to actually build the venue?"

"Do you know that, ff you had invited Chinese construction teams, the venue would have been finished a long time ago."

"Banners are being used to drag away the garbage and do the construction?"

"[I assume] you didn’t pay on time. I believe no providers on this planet are more efficient than Chinese providers, as long as you pay on time."

"It might just be that the banners, as soon as they arrived Brazil, were instantly stolen."

"I was afraid that if anything happened, the blame might go to 'made in China'--here we go!"

"Why not order [the banners] earlier?"

The venue spat has swept across Chinese social networking sites like Sina Weibo and Douban, and many netizens have used it as a chance to express confidence in Chinese companies. The Rio Games in general has been among the top three hottest topics in the past month on Sina Weibo, with Chinese sports fans excitedly anticipating the first Olympic Games ever held in South America.

An article in People’s Daily expressed the thoughtful sentiment that, "One shouldn't judge a game before it has even started." And Daily Mail Online acknowledged that, although the exterior of the Lagoa Stadium appears messy, the interior is thought to be complete.