{"id":2129,"date":"2026-10-28T09:01:34","date_gmt":"2026-10-28T09:01:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/28\/mbappe-apology-taken-seriously-after-mao-remark-china-says\/"},"modified":"2026-10-28T09:01:34","modified_gmt":"2026-10-28T09:01:34","slug":"mbappe-apology-taken-seriously-after-mao-remark-china-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/28\/mbappe-apology-taken-seriously-after-mao-remark-china-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Mbappe apology taken \u2018seriously\u2019 after Mao remark, China says"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Mbappe<\/p>\n

China said Wednesday it took \u201cseriously\u201d an apology from Real Madrid superstar Kylian Mbappe after comments he made poking fun at Mao Zedong sparked a social media storm and saw Spanish football yanked off state TV.<\/p>\n

Mocking former leader Mao \u2014 blamed by historians for millions of deaths \u2014 is taboo in China and the French player\u2019s remarks saw him become the latest foreign sports figure to anger Beijing.<\/p>\n

In a clip of a video interview with French show The Bridge \u2014 since taken down \u2014 Mbappe talked about being amused by an internet meme of his face photoshopped onto \u201csome guy, think he\u2019s a Chinese dictator\u201d, an apparent reference to Mao.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy comment was ill-judged and I now understand that it hurt many people in China and in Chinese communities around the world. I apologise to everyone my words have upset,\u201d the France captain said in a statement in French, Chinese and English on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun told a regular briefing on Wednesday: \u201cWe take seriously the apology the individual concerned has made.\u201d<\/p>\n

La Liga, which saw the broadcast of its matches suspended in China, said it \u201cdeeply regrets the offence that Kylian Mbappe\u2019s recent comments have caused among Chinese fans\u201d.<\/p>\n

But that may not be the end of the matter.<\/p>\n

Chinese beverage giant Dongpeng, which during this year\u2019s World Cup ran adverts with AI-generated images of Mbappe, said Tuesday it had scrapped its partnership with the player, as did dairy firms Mengniu and Milkground.<\/p>\n

CMG, which oversees public broadcaster CCTV, said it had decided to suspend broadcasts of the world\u2019s second-richest football league after England\u2019s Premier League.<\/p>\n

Mbappe\u2019s club also drew fire for not issuing any public apology, with \u201cHow much longer will arrogant Real Madrid keep playing ostrich\u201d ranking fifth on search engine Baidu on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Real \u201chas neither criticised nor warned Mbappe over his conduct, let alone imposed any disciplinary measures\u201d, the state-run Global Times said in an editorial.<\/p>\n

Mbappe, 27, continued to face a torrent of criticism from Chinese web users on Wednesday, some of it racist.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis remarks were hurtful toward China and the Chinese people, so they cannot be translated,\u201d wrote one user on social media platform Weibo.<\/p>\n

Mbappe\u2019s original joke about Mao was not reposted \u2014 or had been scrubbed \u2014 from China\u2019s tightly controlled social media.<\/p>\n

Chinese social media app Xiaohongshu had meanwhile frozen Mbappe\u2019s account, where he has over a million followers.<\/p>\n

The same was done on the Weibo app, with a notice stating that \u201cthe user has been banned from following due to violating laws or the Weibo Community Convention\u201d.<\/p>\n

Some Chinese media reports said global brands like Dior and Hublot had removed\u00a0their Mbappe-related content on Weibo.<\/p>\n

An AFP search on Dior and Hublot\u2019s Weibo page with Mbappe\u2019s Chinese name produced no results.<\/p>\n

\u2013 \u2018Respect history\u2019 \u2013<\/h2>\n

Offline too the Mbappe brand appeared to be under threat.<\/p>\n

When AFP visited the Adidas flagship store in Beijing\u2019s Sanlitun shopping district, Real Madrid shirts were available for sale, but none bearing the striker\u2019s name.<\/p>\n

Chinese state media have previously praised Mbappe as a \u201cfootballing sensation\u201d and \u201ctalent\u201d.<\/p>\n

His face is plastered on billboards, on soft drinks and across social media.<\/p>\n

Mbappe is sometimes affectionately referred to as \u201cGuigui\u201d, meaning \u201cturtle\u201d in Chinese, for his resemblance to a character from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie.<\/p>\n

Other major overseas sports leagues have previously angered China.<\/p>\n

China suspended sponsorship deals with the NBA while the state broadcaster pulled NBA games off Chinese television for a year in October 2019.<\/p>\n

This followed Houston Rockets executive Daryl Morey tweeting \u201cFight for freedom, stand with Hong Kong\u201d, referring to protests Beijing called separatist and seditious.<\/p>\n

\u201cRespecting the history, culture, social customs and national sentiments of others is a fundamental principle for cross-border interaction, a standard of conduct widely upheld by the international community,\u201d the official People\u2019s Daily said in an opinion piece.<\/p>\n

AFP<\/p>\n

\n

The post Mbappe apology taken \u2018seriously\u2019 after Mao remark, China says<\/a> appeared first on Vanguard News<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Source: <\/p>\n

Vanguard News<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

China said Wednesday it took \u201cseriously\u201d an apology from Real Madrid superstar Kylian Mbappe after comments he made poking fun at Mao Zedong sparked a social media storm and saw… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2129\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}