China brands drop Mbappe for ‘offending national sentiments’

Kylian Mbappe was dropped on Tuesday by major Chinese brands after a video circulated of the Real Madrid and France superstar apparently joking about Mao Zedong.

There were also signs of broader repercussions, with state-run The Paper reporting that public television was suspending broadcasts of matches from Spain's La Liga.

The offending video shows Mbappe saying that the funniest internet meme he had seen involving him was of his face photo-shopped onto that of "some guy — I think he's a Chinese dictator".

This was an apparent reference to a meme of Mbappe superimposed on an image of Mao, one of several that use the footballer's face with other historical figures.

The authenticity of the video could not immediately be verified by AFP Fact Check.

In China jokes about Mao, the country's founding leader who died in 1976 — and whose drastic policies are also blamed by historians for mass starvation and millions of deaths — remain taboo.

Beverage giant Dongpeng, which during this year's World Cup ran adverts with AI-generated images of Mbappe consuming its sports drink, said it was terminating all cooperation with the France captain.

"Our company firmly opposes and has a zero-tolerance policy towards any behaviour that offends national sentiments," Dongpeng said in a statement.

Mengniu, China's largest dairy producer, and cheesemaker Milkground also said they were cutting ties with Mbappe, who until now had been hugely popular among Chinese fans, with millions of followers on social media.

Mbappe is fondly nicknamed "Guigui", the Chinese translation of "Turtle", due to his popularity as a character in a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles meme.

"Dongpeng Beverage ends cooperation with Mbappe" was the top-trending topic on the Chinese social media site Weibo, with 430 million views.

One Weibo user said that the "extremely serious wrong remarks… crossed the red line".

Others urged Dongpeng to remove Mbappe's image from their energy drink bottles.

Dongqiudi, one of China's biggest online football outlets, said in a statement on Monday evening that Mbappe's remarks were "offensive to China and the Chinese people".

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In an interview with French sports newspaper L'Equipe, the 27-year-old Mbappe in September addressed a previous meme depicting him as a military dictator.

"There's a part of it that's funny… but there is another part that's a bit less funny because of the damage such people have caused throughout history," he said.

Asked on Tuesday about the controversy, China's foreign ministry said that it was aware of the reports.

"Words and actions that hurt the feelings of the Chinese people will naturally be met with unanimous rejection from all sectors of Chinese society," spokesman Guo Jiakun told a regular briefing.

On the CCTV website all searches for "Mbappe" drew no result, although there were still results for "Real Madrid", and La Liga matches this weekend were still on its online viewing schedule.

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Global sports stars who have commented on sensitive topics such as Taiwan, Tibet and Hong Kong have previously caused controversy in China and been dumped by sponsors there.

China suspended sponsorship deals with the NBA while the state broadcaster pulled NBA games off Chinese television for a year in October 2019.

This followed Houston Rockets executive Daryl Morey tweeting "Fight for freedom, stand with Hong Kong", referring to protests Beijing called separatist and seditious.

Adam Zhang, founder of the Beijing-based sports consultancy firm Key-Solution Sports Consulting, said that Mbappe's team needed to act quickly to manage the growing crisis.

"It's crucial to make a sincere statement. The sooner, the better," Zhang, who has advised many companies on sports advertising strategies, told AFP.

"I used to really enjoy watching Mbappe play on the pitch," Zhang Jingqi, 30, who works at a mall in central Beijing, told AFP.

"But ever since this news broke yesterday I have lost that admiration, sorry to say."

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