AFP - China may be enjoying a comfortable lead in the medals table at the East Asian Games, but they have not had it all their own way, crashing out of the football and "humiliated" in men's basketball.

China, population 1.3 billion, narrowly beat hosts Hong Kong, population seven million, 1-0 in the football Tuesday but it was not enough to get them past the group stages.

The much-maligned Chinese football team finished bottom of Group B, having been beaten 3-0 in their opening game against South Korea.

"It was not quite as catastrophic as when China were knocked out in the qualifying stages for the 1986 World Cup in Mexico, but last night little brothers Hong Kong bared their teeth again to inflict another painful result on the mainland's soccer mandarins," said the South China Morning Post.

Korea then smashed China 91-59 in the semi-finals of the men's basketball Tuesday to ensure there would be no Chinese gold medal there either.

It was China's heaviest defeat to South Korea in three decades, according to the state news agency Xinhua, which said the Chinese team were "humiliated".

The loss was even more galling because basketball is the nation's most popular sport.

However, China Wednesday topped of the overall medals table with 31 golds, followed by Japan and South Korea.

The Games, which feature nine teams, end on December 13.