{"id":3420,"date":"2026-10-28T12:03:48","date_gmt":"2026-10-28T07:03:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=3420"},"modified":"2026-10-28T12:03:48","modified_gmt":"2026-10-28T07:03:48","slug":"mbappe-seeks-to-defuse-anger-in-china-after-mao-dictator-comment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=3420","title":{"rendered":"Mbappe seeks to defuse anger in China after Mao ‘dictator’ comment"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

France soccer captain Kylian Mbappe apologised to China on Tuesday after a fierce backlash over his comments referring to late Chinese leader Mao Zedong as a dictator, underscoring how swiftly global celebrities can come unstuck.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In a video on a \u200bFrench podcast that has since been taken down, Mbappe is heard discussing a funny meme where his face had been photoshopped onto that of \u201csome guy \u2014 I think he\u2019s a Chinese dictator\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring a recent interview, I \u200creacted to an image of myself,\u201d Real Madrid forward Mbappe said in a statement. \u201cMy comment was ill-judged, and I now understand that it hurt many people in China and in Chinese communities around the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cI apologise to everyone my words have upset,\u201d added Mbappe, who has ties with firms including Swiss sportswear brand On Holding, hotel chain Accor and Lego. \u201cThis was absolutely not my intention.\u201d<\/p>\n

The backlash highlighted the risks for athletes and brands in the lucrative China market, where satire about Mao, modern China\u2019s founding leader who ruled the country \u200bfrom 1949 until he died in 1976, remains a social taboo.<\/p>\n

Report Ad<\/p>\n

LaLiga President Javier Tebas said that he held a meeting with the ambassador of China in Spain to address the situation and \u201cseek solutions that \u200ballow us to overcome this episode.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur commitment is to keep working together so that an individual episode does not harm the important advances achieved nor affect the millions of \u2060Chinese fans who follow our competitions,\u201d Tebas said in a statement posted to social media. \u201cChina is and will continue to be a strategic partner for LaLiga.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other major organisations that have incurred the wrath of Beijing and \u200bChinese netizens include fashion brand Dolce & Gabbana, Swiss watchmaker Swatch and the National Basketball Association.<\/p>\n

Some recovered quickly while others took years.<\/p>\n

<\/a>China state TV halts broadcasts<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Brands including dairy companies Mengniu and Shanghai Milkground Food Tech, as well as Eastroc Beverage, said they were ceasing all cooperation with Mbappe effective immediately.<\/p>\n

The companies said they \u201cfirmly oppose and have zero tolerance for any words or actions that hurt the feelings of the Chinese people.\u201d<\/p>\n

China\u2019s state television has halted broadcasts of all matches and events involving LaLiga and Mbappe, and all advertisements involving Mbappe have been removed, the state-backed media outlet the Paper reported on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cMbappe\u2019s team knew, or should have known, what the true cost of Chinese brand endorsements was all about,\u201d said Terrence Burns, sports sponsorship expert and CEO of the T. \u200bBurns Sports Group.<\/p>\n

Swiss-based On Holding, which signed Mbappe<\/a> in September after he had spent two decades at US rival Nike, welcomed his apology and said it had \u201cdeep respect\u201d for China.<\/p>\n

Accor did not immediately respond to requests for \u200bcomment.<\/p>\n

Denmark\u2019s Lego, which has a Mbappe building set on sale in China, said it could not comment. The Mbappe set was still featured on Lego\u2019s Chinese website on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

<\/a>\u2018What did he say?\u2019<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Chinese state media outlet China Daily said Mbappe\u2019s remark had \u201ctriggered \u200ca backlash \u2060among his Chinese fans, threatened his lucrative commercial relationships and offered a sharp reminder of the limits of celebrity influence\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat did he say? Many Chinese would rather not repeat it,\u201d the state-backed Global Times added. \u201cThe message from Chinese consumers is clear: Respect is not optional; one doesn\u2019t get to profit from China while disrespecting it. Not a chance.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Chinese social media platform Weibo, one user wrote about the apology: \u201cNot accepted. Not forgiven!!\u201d<\/p>\n

State broadcaster CCTV struck a more conciliatory tone, however, saying it would listen to what Mbappe had to say after his apology, and \u201ceven more importantly\u201d watch what he does.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hope La Liga, Real Madrid, and Mbappe himself will genuinely learn a lesson from this, offer a \u200bsincere apology, and thoroughly correct their mistakes,\u201d CCTV said in \u200ba statement.<\/p>\n

Real Madrid declined to comment.<\/p>\n

Tebas issued \u2060an apology earlier on Tuesday on X and said his organisation deeply regretted the alleged comments that have caused discomfort and offence in China.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are taking the measures within our reach and working directly with our partners and interlocutors in China to overcome this situation,\u201d Tebas wrote. \u201cA relationship built over so many years cannot be damaged by a \u200bsingle episode.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/a>Trending on Weibo<\/strong><\/h3>\n

As of 0700 GMT, four topics related to Mbappe were still among the top 10 trending searches on Weibo. Some netizens called for China \u200bto blacklist Mbappe and reduce his \u2060commercial value to zero. These comments received hundreds of likes.<\/p>\n

Fans have been creating memes superimposing Mbappe\u2019s face on images of military and political leaders to suggest that he has the power to influence decisions at the teams he plays for.<\/p>\n

Mbappe has been nicknamed \u201cthe dictator\u201d in the European press.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn attempting to laugh at himself and his reputation of being a dictator in the locker room, he apparently crossed a red line he didn\u2019t know was there,\u201d said Brian Jacobsen, chief economic strategist at \u2060Annex Wealth Management.<\/p>\n

In \u200ban interview with L\u2019Equipe last month, Mbappe said that although aspects of the meme trend were harmless fun, the viral ones depicting \u200bhim as a dictator showed \u201ca lack of political and human awareness\u201d.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for China\u2019s Foreign Ministry said words and actions that hurt the feelings of the Chinese people \u201cwill naturally be met with joint opposition from all sectors of Chinese society\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

France soccer captain Kylian Mbappe apologised to China on Tuesday after a fierce backlash over his comments referring to late Chinese leader Mao Zedong as a dictator, underscoring how swiftly global celebrities can come unstuck. In a video on a \u200bFrench podcast that has since been taken down, Mbappe is heard discussing a funny meme where his face had been photoshopped onto that of \u201csome guy \u2014 I think he\u2019s a Chinese dictator\u201d. \u201cDuring a recent interview, I \u200creacted to an image of myself,\u201d Real Madrid forward Mbappe said in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english"],"gutentor_comment":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3420\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}