What do Kylian Mbappe and Hello Kitty have in common? They’ve both angered China

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What do French soccer star Kylian Mbappé and the Japanese company behind Hello Kitty have in common?

Before this week, very little. Now, they share the unenviable position of having angered Chinese fans and consumers – then having to quickly apologize and do damage control, with big earnings on the line.

It’s not the first time this has happened. In recent years, other foreign brands and prominent figures, from athletes to fashion houses, have found themselves in hot water. But this week’s back-to-back backtracks illustrate how difficult it can be to do business in China – where once you cross a perceived red line, people aren’t so quick to forgive and forget.

It started when Real Madrid forward Mbappé appeared in a video posted by a French talk show, discussing a funny meme where his face had been photoshopped onto “some guy – I think he’s a Chinese dictator.”

That “guy” was former Chinese leader Mao Zedong – who, despite a tumultuous reign that saw tens of millions of deaths caused by disastrous policies, is still revered as the father of the People’s Republic. Half a century after his death, this complicated legacy is still a highly sensitive topic within China.

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Mbappé’s throwaway comment immediately lit a firestorm on Chinese social media, one which swiftly traveled offline. Multiple brands cut ties with him, saying they had “zero tolerance for any words or actions that hurt the feelings of the Chinese people.” State media removed all content and ads involving Mbappé – who came second this week in the Ballon d’Or vote for the world’s top men’s player – and halted broadcasts of all matches and events involving him and Spanish football league La Liga.

Facing the threat of further repercussions, Mbappé issued a formal apology on Tuesday. “My comment was ill-judged, and I now understand that it hurt many people in China and in Chinese communities around the world,” he said in a statement. La Liga and other brands affiliated with Mbappé also sought to reverse the damage, emphasizing how much they valued and respected their Chinese partners.

Before the furor had even died down, another was beginning – this time over Hello Kitty maker Sanrio.

The company had collaborated with Japanese spy drama VIVANT to create merchandise based on Sanrio characters – including Hello Kitty, My Melody, Kuromi and Cinnamoroll – wearing outfits from the TV show. But the show had been called anti-Chinese by China’s state media amid ongoing geopolitical tensions, and the collaboration went viral on Chinese social media, where users lambasted the series for depicting Chinese intelligence agents torturing Japanese spies.

By Thursday, Sanrio had backtracked, saying it had “received feedback from various parties.”

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“Regarding this collaboration, we believe that it contains expressions that are inconsistent with Sanrio’s corporate values. We have therefore decided to discontinue this collaboration, along with all subsequent projects and promotional activities,” it said in a statement posted both on its website and on Chinese social media platform Weibo, where a hashtag about the apology racked up more than 180 million views.

Even Chinese officials weighed in. VIVANT “once again exposes the fact that there has always been a force within Japan that seeks to vilify and smear China through cultural products and spread anti-China sentiment,” said Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Guo Jiakun in a regular press briefing on Thursday.

In both cases, Sanrio and Mbappé followed a now-familiar pattern for anyone who has caused offense on Chinese social media: apologize deferentially; retract statements; discontinue controversial products; and hope it will blow over. The same sequence unfurled with Dolce & Gabbana in 2018; Versace in 2019; the Houston Rockets , and by extension the NBA , in 2019; H&M and Nike in 2021; Bulgari in 2023; and Lululemon just earlier this year.

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The controversies range across various topics, but many concern geopolitical or historical sensitivities, such as the status of Hong Kong and Macao as semi-autonomous regions of China, or the status of Taiwan, the self-governing democracy that Beijing views as part of its territory. Other controversies, such as the Lululemon and Sanrio ones, were fueled by historical animosity between China and Japan, with anti-Japanese sentiment gaining traction in China in recent years as bilateral ties worsen .

Foreign brands or celebrities doing business in China have to tread carefully because “the Chinese consumer is hyper-sensitive to any slights or perceived slights or attacks on the Chinese country and on the Chinese people,” said Shaun Rein, founder and managing director of the China Market Research Group.

“Brands have to be cautious, and they’re getting more and more so because they hire consultants and internal executives who understand historical problems and geopolitical sensitivities,” he added.

This heightened online sensitivity has coincided with surging ultranationalism in recent years, as well as China’s increased assertiveness in foreign policy and territorial conflicts. Ironically, on China’s highly censored social media platforms, many outlets have not explicitly spelled out Mbappé’s comments – leading many Chinese people to wonder what he had said in the first place to hurt their feelings.

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But for many brands, it’s worth the risk to access China’s enormous consumer market. Sanrio China reported revenue of $117 million in the first half of 2026 alone, according to Chinese state media. The same goes for sports stars who rely on lucrative endorsements – especially in a nation already mad about basketball, and hungry for soccer.

Though Western sports leagues and teams can’t publicly warn their players to avoid angering China – and risk sparking a different sort of backlash – that may well happen behind the scenes, according to sports analyst Mark Dreyer, who wrote a 2022 book about China’s sporting ambitions.

“That’s just sensible business practice, particularly if you have multi-million dollar sponsorships on the line,” he told Reuters.

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Some controversies die down relatively quickly, and brands recover. Other times, the damage can be long-lasting – and expensive. Years after a series of racially controversial ads and offensive private messages allegedly sent by a co-founder, Dolce & Gabbana is still a label non grata in China. And after the Houston Rockets general manager voiced support for the Hong Kong pro-democracy protest movement in 2019, China severed ties with the NBA and banned all teams from playing in the country, despite copious apologies, until they were finally allowed to return last year.

It’s not clear how long the road to recovery will be for Sanrio and Mbappé. But “these are the stakes of playing in China,” said Zak Dychtwald, founder of Bridgeworks Global, which advises multinational organizations.

“When it goes well, everybody celebrates. And it’s the second largest economy on earth and most often your biggest growth segment for whichever company and industry you’re in,” he told Reuters. “But when you get it wrong, it could be extraordinarily painful and swift in its retribution.”

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法国足球明星基利安·姆巴佩和Hello Kitty背后的日本公司有什么共同之处？

本周之前，他们几乎没什么损失。现在，他们却面临着一个尴尬的境地：激怒了中国粉丝和消费者，不得不迅速道歉并进行危机公关，而巨额利润岌岌可危。

这并非此类事件首次发生。近年来，其他外国品牌和知名人士，从运动员到时装公司，都曾陷入困境。但本周接连不断的政策逆转表明，在中国做生意有多么艰难——一旦你触碰到了人们眼中的红线，他们就不会轻易原谅你。

事情起因是皇家马德里前锋姆巴佩出现在法国一档脱口秀节目发布的一段视频中，他在视频中讨论了一个有趣的表情包，视频中他的脸被PS到了“某个人——我认为他是中国独裁者”的脸上。

那个“人”指的是中国前领导人毛泽东——尽管他统治时期动荡不安，灾难性的政策导致数千万人丧生，但他仍然被尊为中华人民共和国的缔造者。在他逝世半个世纪后，这段复杂的历史遗产在中国仍然是一个高度敏感的话题。

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姆巴佩的这番随口之言立即在中国社交媒体上引发轩然大波，并迅速蔓延至线下。多家品牌纷纷与他断绝关系，表示“对任何伤害中国人民感情的言论或行为都零容忍”。官方媒体删除了所有与姆巴佩相关的内容和广告——姆巴佩本周在金球奖评选中位列第二——并停止了所有涉及他以及西甲联赛的比赛和活动的转播。

面对可能面临的进一步后果，姆巴佩周二发表了正式道歉声明。他在声明中表示：“我的言论欠妥，我现在明白它伤害了中国以及世界各地华人社区的许多人。” 西甲联赛和其他与姆巴佩相关的品牌也试图挽回损失，强调他们对中国合作伙伴的重视和尊重。

这场风波还没平息，另一场风波又开始了——这次的主角是 Hello Kitty 的制造商 Sanrio。

该公司曾与日本谍战剧《VIVANT》合作，推出以三丽鸥角色（包括Hello Kitty、My Melody、Kuromi和Cinnamoroll）为原型，身着剧中服装的周边产品。然而，在当前地缘政治紧张局势下，该剧被中国官方媒体指责为反华剧，此次合作在中国社交媒体上引发热议，用户纷纷抨击该剧描绘中国情报人员拷打日本间谍的场景。

到周四，三丽鸥公司改口称，他们“收到了各方的反馈”。

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“关于此次合作，我们认为其中包含与三丽鸥企业价值观不符的言论。因此，我们决定终止此次合作以及所有后续项目和推广活动。”该公司在其网站和中国社交媒体平台微博上发表声明称。该道歉声明的相关话题标签在微博上的浏览量已超过1.8亿次。

就连中国官员也发表了看法。外交部发言人郭家坤在周四的例行记者会上表示，“VIVANT再次暴露了日本国内一直存在一股势力，企图通过文化产品诋毁和抹黑中国，散播反华情绪。”

在这两起事件中，三丽鸥和姆巴佩都遵循了如今在中国社交媒体上引发争议后常见的处理模式：恭敬地道歉；撤回言论；停售争议产品；然后希望风波平息。同样的套路也曾出现在2018年的杜嘉班纳、2019年的范思哲、2019年的休斯顿火箭队（以及NBA）、2021年的H&M和耐克、2023年的宝格丽，以及今年早些时候的露露柠檬身上。

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这些争议涉及诸多领域，但许多都涉及地缘政治或历史敏感问题，例如香港和澳门作为中国半自治地区的地位，以及台湾——北京视之为中国领土一部分的自治民主政体——的地位。另一些争议，例如 Lululemon 和 Sanrio 事件，则源于中日之间的历史宿怨，近年来随着双边关系恶化，中国的反日情绪日益高涨。

中国市场研究集团创始人兼董事总经理肖恩·雷恩表示，外国品牌或名人在中国开展业务时必须谨慎行事，因为“中国消费者对任何轻视或被认为轻视或攻击中国和中国人民的行为都极其敏感”。

“品牌必须谨慎行事，而且他们越来越谨慎，因为他们会聘请了解历史问题和地缘政治敏感性的顾问和内部高管，”他补充道。

近年来，网络敏感度的提升恰逢极端民族主义抬头，以及中国在外交政策和领土冲突中日益强硬的姿态。具有讽刺意味的是，在中国审查严格的社交媒体平台上，许多媒体并未明确指出姆巴佩的言论——这让许多中国人不禁疑惑，他究竟说了什么才冒犯了他们。

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NBA重返中国赛场引起轰动。现在，他们必须避免陷入犯规麻烦。

但对许多品牌来说，进入中国庞大的消费市场是值得冒险的。据中国官方媒体报道，三丽鸥中国仅在2026年上半年就实现了1.17亿美元的营收。对于依赖高额代言费的体育明星来说，情况也是如此——尤其是在一个篮球狂热、足球也如日中天的国家。

尽管西方体育联盟和球队不能公开警告他们的球员避免激怒中国——并冒着引发另一种反弹的风险——但据体育分析师马克·德雷尔（Mark Dreyer）称，这种情况很可能在幕后发生。德雷尔曾撰写了一本关于中国体育雄心的2022年出版的书。

“这只是合理的商业做法，尤其是在有数百万美元的赞助合同的情况下，”他告诉路透社。

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有些争议很快就能平息，品牌也能恢复元气。但有些时候，损害却会持续很久，而且代价高昂。例如，杜嘉班纳(Dolce & Gabbana)的联合创始人被曝出一系列种族歧视广告和冒犯性私人信息，多年后，该品牌在中国仍然不受欢迎。此外，休斯顿火箭队总经理在2019年公开支持香港民主运动后，中国断绝了与NBA的合作关系，并禁止所有NBA球队在中国比赛，尽管NBA方面多次道歉，直到去年才最终获准重返中国。

目前尚不清楚三丽鸥和姆巴佩的复苏之路需要多久。但为跨国公司提供咨询服务的Bridgeworks Global创始人扎克·迪希特瓦尔德表示：“这就是在中国比赛的风险。”

“如果一切顺利，人人欢庆。它是全球第二大经济体，而且通常也是你所在公司和行业最大的增长点，”他告诉路透社。“但如果做错了，后果可能极其痛苦，而且会迅速显现。”