Kylian Mbappe's alleged joke about Mao Zedong has triggered a major backlash in China, with brands withdrawing support and online outrage growing against the football icon.
France and Real Madrid star Kylian Mbappe has landed himself in a spot after a video of him speaking about former chairman of the Chinese Communist Party Mao Zedong went viral on social media, with the nation cutting off his sponsorships over allegations of insulting the leader.
The repercussions appeared to extend beyond the immediate issue, with state-run The Paper reporting that public television was suspending broadcasts of Spain’s La Liga games.
The controversial video shows Mbappe recalling that the funniest internet meme featuring him involved his face being photoshopped onto that of ‘some guy: I think he is a Chinese dictator’.
“Our company firmly opposes and has a zero-tolerance policy towards any behaviour that offends national sentiments," Beverage giant Dongpeng, which ran advertisements featuring AI-generated pictures of Mbappe drinking its sports drink during this year’s FIFA World Cup, said in a statement.
China’s largest dairy producer Mengniu and cheesemaker Milkground announced that they were severing ties with Mbappe as well, who has enjoyed immense popularity among Chinese fans, with millions following him on social media.
Mbappe is nicknamed ‘Guigui’, the Chinese word for ‘turtle’, owing to a meme comparing him to a character from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
The hashtag ‘Dongpeng Beverage Ends Cooperation With Mbappe’ topped the trending topics on Chinese social media platform Weibo, garnering 430 million views.
One Weibo user condemned the remarks as’“extremely serious’ and said that they had ‘crossed the red line’, while others requested Dongpeng to remove Mbappe’s photo from its energy drink bottles.
Dongqiudi, one of China’s largest online football platforms, said in a statement on Monday evening that Mbappe’s remarks were ‘offensive to China and the Chinese people’.
In an interview with French sports daily L’Équipe in September, the 27-year-old Mbappe spoke about an earlier meme that portrayed him as a military dictator.
