China is claiming victory over the US in the Tokyo Olympic medal table by including Hong Kong and Taiwan in its count

• China is claiming victory over the US in the Tokyo Olympic medal table, producing an altered version of the count.
• The embellished table includes Chinese territories Hong Kong and Taiwan, which compete independently at the games.
• Including Hong Kong and Taiwan's medals in the count gives China 42 golds, three more than the US.

China has declared itself the winner of the Tokyo Olympics after presenting an alternate version of the games' medal table.

In the amended table, which has been shared by Chinese media and published widely on social media site Weibo, China's medal tally includes those won by Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Both places are Chinese territories, but compete separately to the Republic of China team at the Olympics.

Hong Kong, styled on the Olympic website as "Hong Kong, China," won one gold, two silvers, and three bronze medals.

Taiwan, which competes in the Olympics as Chinese Taipei, won two golds, four silvers, and six bronzes.

Without the medals of Hong Kong and Taiwan, China had 38 gold medals, one behind the 39 of Team USA. With the extra medals, however, China claims to have 42 golds.

Even with the added medals, China finished four medals behind the US in the overall count. Generally speaking, however, medals at the Olympics are counted by golds won, rather than overall medals.

By the official count on the Olympic website, the USA finished first with a total of 39 gold medals to China's 38 and earned 110 medals in total to China's 88. Host nation Japan was third with 27 golds, and 57 medals in total.

Don Weinland, a business and finance reporter at the Economist focusing on China joked on Twitter that China should also start including medals won by Mongolia, which sits just north of China, should also be counted.

Mongolia took one silver and three bronze medals at Tokyo.

Both Hong Kong and Taiwan are recognized as independent teams by the International Olympic Committee, whereas medals earned from those from Macau, another Chinese territory, count towards China's overall tally.

By the official table, Hong Kong finished in 49th place, while Taiwan came in 34th.