Real Madrid apologise to China after Mbappe’s Mao remarks get La Liga pulled off Chinese TV

MADRID, Oct 28 — Real Madrid apologised to China today for Kylian Mbappe’s comments poking fun at Mao Zedong, after the star striker’s remarks 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 Mbappe’s remarks saw him become the latest foreign sports figure to anger Beijing.

In a clip of a video interview with French show The Bridge ” — since taken down — Mbappe talked about being amused by an internet meme of his face photoshopped onto “some guy, think he’s a Chinese dictator”, an apparent reference to Mao.

Real Madrid “wishes to express its apologies to the Chinese people for any offence caused by the recent remarks of our player Kylian Mbappe”, the club said in a statement.

“The club joins in the public apology issued by Kylian Mbappe, 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 Mbappe issued his own apology, in French, Chinese and English, 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 today: “We take seriously the apology the individual concerned has made.”

La Liga, which saw the broadcast of its matches suspended in China, said yesterday it “deeply regrets the offence that Kylian Mbappe’s recent comments have caused among Chinese fans”.

Earlier, the 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 Mbappe’s latest offensive remarks”.

Chinese beverage giant Dongpeng, which during this year’s World Cup ran adverts with AI-generated images of Mbappe, said yesterday it had scrapped its partnership with the player, as did dairy firms Mengniu and Milkground.

CMG, which oversees public broadcaster CCTV, said it had decided to suspend broadcasts of La Liga, the world’s second-richest football league after England’s Premier League.

Mbappe, 27, continued to face a torrent of criticism from Chinese web users today, 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.

Mbappe’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 Mbappe’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 Mbappe-related content on Weibo.

An AFP search on Dior and Hublot’s Weibo page with Mbappe’s Chinese name produced no results.

Offline too the Mbappe 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 Mbappe as a “footballing sensation” and “talent”.

His face is plastered on billboards, on soft drinks and across social media.

Mbappe 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 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.

“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. — AFP

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马德里，10 月 28 日——皇家马德里今天就基利安·姆巴佩嘲讽毛泽东的言论向中国道歉。此前，这位明星前锋的言论引发了社交媒体风暴，并导致西班牙足球比赛从中国国家电视台停播。

在中国，嘲讽被历史学家指责造成数百万人死亡的前领导人毛泽东是禁忌，姆巴佩的言论使他成为最新一位激怒北京的外国体育人物。

在一段接受法国节目《The Bridge》采访的视频片段中（该片段已被删除），姆巴佩谈到他看到一张网络迷因图，将他的脸PS到“某个人身上，认为他是中国独裁者”，这显然是指毛泽东，这让他觉得很有趣。

皇家马德里俱乐部在一份声明中表示：“对于我俱乐部球员基利安·姆巴佩最近的言论可能冒犯中国人民，我们深表歉意。”

“俱乐部与基利安·姆巴佩一同发表公开道歉声明，姆巴佩本人在声明中表达了对自己言论的遗憾，并重申了他对中国人民的尊重，”这家15次欧洲冠军得主表示。

此前一天，姆巴佩用法语、中文和英语发表了道歉声明，称：“我的言论欠妥，我现在明白这伤害了中国以及世界各地华人社区的许多人。”

外交部发言人郭家坤在今天的例行记者会上表示：“我们认真对待有关人士的道歉。”

西甲联赛的比赛在中国的转播已被暂停，该联赛昨天表示“对姆巴佩最近的言论在中国球迷中造成的冒犯深表遗憾”。

此前，官方媒体《环球时报》在一篇社论中表示，“不难看出，俱乐部长期以来对这种行为的容忍态度，促成了姆巴佩最近的冒犯性言论”。

中国饮料巨头东鹏公司昨天表示，已终止与姆巴佩的合作关系。东鹏公司在今年的世界杯期间投放了使用人工智能生成的姆巴佩图像的广告。同样终止合作关系的还有乳制品公司蒙牛和奶谷。

负责监管公共广播机构中央电视台的中国媒体集团（CMG）表示，已决定暂停转播西甲联赛，西甲联赛是继英格兰超级联赛之后世界上第二富有的足球联赛。

27岁的姆巴佩今天继续遭到中国网民的猛烈抨击，其中一些批评带有种族歧视色彩。

一位微博用户写道：“他的言论伤害了中国和中国人民，所以无法翻译。”

姆巴佩最初关于毛泽东的笑话并没有从中国严格管控的社交媒体上被转发——或者已经被删除了。

与此同时，中国社交媒体应用小红书冻结了姆巴佩的账号，他在该平台上拥有超过一百万的粉丝。

微博应用上也出现了同样的情况，并显示通知称“该用户因违反法律或微博社区公约而被禁止关注”。

一些中国媒体报道称，迪奥和宇舶等国际品牌已经删除了微博上与姆巴佩相关的内容。

法新社在迪奥和宇舶表的微博页面上搜索姆巴佩的中文名字，没有找到任何结果。

在线下，姆巴佩的品牌形象似乎也受到了威胁。

法新社记者走访了位于北京三里屯购物区的阿迪达斯旗舰店，发现店内有皇家马德里球衣出售，但没有一件球衣上印有这位前锋的名字。

中国官方媒体此前曾称赞姆巴佩是“足球奇才”和“天才”。

他的照片出现在广告牌、软饮料包装和社交媒体上。

姆巴佩有时被亲切地称为“龟龟”，因为他长得像电影《忍者神龟》中的一个角色。

其他一些主要的海外体育联盟此前也曾激怒过中国。

2019 年 10 月，中国暂停了与 NBA 的赞助协议，同时中国国家电视台也停播了 NBA 比赛长达一年。

此前，休斯顿火箭队高管达里尔·莫雷在推特上发文“为自由而战，与香港站在一起”，指的是北京方面所称的分裂和煽动性抗议活动。

《人民日报》在一篇评论文章中指出：“尊重他人的历史、文化、社会习俗和民族情感是跨境交往的基本原则，也是国际社会普遍认可的行为准则。”——法新社

尽管姆巴佩就毛泽东言论道歉，但仍面临中国方面的强烈反对。

16岁的马克斯·唐将代表马来西亚参加海洋人公开水域游泳世界总决赛。

阿尔卡拉斯赢得维也纳首战，兹维列夫挽救四个赛点后晋级。阿尔卡拉斯赢得维也纳首战，兹维列夫挽救四个赛点。

FMM报告：雾霾导致部分马来西亚公司在口罩和医疗费用方面损失约28万令吉。

报告显示，马来西亚最近一次雾霾造成80亿令吉的福利损失，并可能导致1700人死亡。

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