Real Madrid has apologised to China after star striker Kylian Mbappé apparently joked about Mao Zedong in comments that sparked a social media storm and saw Spanish football yanked off state TV.
Mocking former leader Mao — blamed by historians for millions of deaths — is taboo in China, and Mbappé's remarks saw him become the latest foreign sports figure to anger the country.
In a clip of a video interview with French show The Bridge — since taken down — Mbappé talked about being amused by an internet meme of his face photo-shopped onto "some guy, think he's a Chinese dictator", an apparent reference to Mao.
The fallout was immediate. Chinese beverage giant Dongpeng, which during this year's World Cup ran adverts with AI-generated images of Mbappé, said on Tuesday it had scrapped its partnership with the player, as did dairy firms Mengniu and Milkground.
CMG, which oversees public broadcaster CCTV, said it had suspended broadcasts of La Liga, the world's second-richest football league after England's Premier League.
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On Wednesday, Real Madrid issued a statement saying it "wishes to express its apologies to the Chinese people for any offence caused by the recent remarks of our player Kylian Mbappé".
"The club joins in the public apology issued by Kylian Mbappé, in which the player himself expressed his regret for his words and reiterated his respect for the Chinese people," the 15-time European champions said.
The statement came a day after Mbappé — who was the top scorer in this year's World Cup with 10 goals — issued his own apology, saying: "My comment was ill-judged and I now understand that it hurt many people in China and in Chinese communities around the world."
Foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun told a regular briefing on Wednesday: "We take seriously the apology the individual concerned has made."
La Liga said on Tuesday it "deeply regrets the offence that Kylian Mbappé's recent comments have caused among Chinese fans".
Earlier, the Chinese state-run Global Times said in an editorial that it was "not difficult to see that the club's longstanding tolerance of such behaviour has contributed to Mbappé's latest offensive remarks".
Mbappé, 27, continued to face a torrent of criticism from Chinese web users on Wednesday, some of it racist.
"His remarks were hurtful toward China and the Chinese people, so they cannot be translated," wrote one user on social media platform Weibo.
Mbappé's original joke about Mao was not reposted — or had been scrubbed — from China's tightly controlled social media.
Chinese social media app Xiaohongshu had meanwhile frozen Mbappé's account, where he has over a million followers.
The same was done on the Weibo app, with a notice stating that "the user has been banned from following due to violating laws or the Weibo Community Convention".
Some Chinese media reports said global brands like Dior and Hublot had removed their Mbappé-related content on Weibo.
A search by the Agence France-Presse (AFP) news agency on Dior and Hublot's Weibo page with Mbappé's Chinese name produced no results.
Offline too the Mbappé brand appeared to be under threat.
When AFP visited the Adidas flagship store in Beijing's Sanlitun shopping district, Real Madrid shirts were available for sale, but none bearing the striker's name.
Chinese state media have previously praised Mbappé as a "footballing sensation" and "talent".
His face is plastered on billboards, on soft drinks and across social media.
Mbappé is sometimes affectionately referred to as "Guigui", meaning "turtle" in Chinese, for his resemblance to a character from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie.
Other major overseas sports leagues have previously angered China.
China suspended sponsorship deals with the US National Basketball Association 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 the Chinese government called separatist and seditious.
"Respecting 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," the official People's Daily newspaper said in an opinion piece.
