French international, Kylian Mbappé is facing mounting backlash in China over remarks reportedly referring to Mao Zedong as a dictator, prompting sponsors to drop the French footballer and disrupting broadcasts of Spanish football matches.
China’s state broadcaster, CCTV, has warned that Mbappé’s apology would ultimately be judged by his subsequent actions.
“We will listen to his words, but watch his actions even more closely,” an unnamed representative of China Media Group said on October 27, urging Mbappé, Real Madrid and La Liga to learn from the incident and correct their conduct.
A day earlier, the broadcaster had suspended coverage of La Liga matches involving the French forward and withdrawn advertisements featuring him.
Mbappé’s accounts on Chinese social media platforms Xiaohongshu and Weibo were also subsequently muted, according to Renmin Ruiping, an online commentary platform affiliated with People’s Daily.
As of October 28, it remained unclear whether the suspended broadcasts had resumed or restrictions on his social media accounts had been lifted.
The backlash followed the circulation of a clip from the French programme The Bridge, in which Mbappé discussed a meme showing his face superimposed on that of Mao Zedong, China’s late Communist Party chairman and founding leader of the People’s Republic of China.
In the clip, Mbappé reportedly described the funniest meme he had seen of himself as one showing his face superimposed on that of “some guy—I think he’s a Chinese dictator”, according to Reuters, which said it could not independently verify the video.
The French football star subsequently issued an apology in Chinese, French and English in a statement posted on X on October 27, acknowledging that his comments were ill-judged and had hurt many Chinese communities around the world.
La Liga has issued an official statement expressing regret over the offence caused to Chinese fans by Kylian Mbappé’s remarks, stressing that the French footballer’s personal views do not reflect the Spanish league’s position.
The commercial consequences have also emerged, with several brands ending their partnerships with the Real Madrid forward.
Dongpeng Beverage, Mengniu and cheese maker Milkground announced the termination of their sponsorship agreements with Mbappé, according to company statements compiled by China.org.cn, a state-run news portal and news service.
Dongpeng’s sports drink brand, Bushuila, had only named Mbappé its brand ambassador in April this year.
Meanwhile, Swiss sportswear brand On and French luxury fashion house Dior have reportedly removed Chinese promotional content featuring Mbappé, although neither company has announced a global termination of its partnership with the footballer, according to Chinese news outlet Phoenix.
The Real Madrid forward had approximately one million followers each on Xiaohongshu and Weibo. Reuters reported that four topics related to Mbappé featured among Weibo’s top 10 trending searches on October 27.
