Mbappe cut by major Chinese sponsors after Mao Zedong comment

Kylian Mbappe lost two major sponsorship deals in China on Tuesday after a video surfaced in which the French footballer joked about former leader Mao Zedong. Dongpeng Beverage and Mengniu, China's largest dairy producer, both announced they were terminating their cooperation with the 27-year-old immediately.

Dongpeng said in a statement that the company opposes behavior that offends national sentiments and maintains a zero-tolerance policy toward such incidents. The drinks giant added that it is ending all cooperation with Mbappe with immediate effect. Mengniu issued a similar declaration, stating that it firmly opposes words or actions that hurt the feelings of the Chinese people.

The controversy began when a video circulated online showing Mbappe discussing internet memes. He said the funniest meme he had seen was of his face digitally altered onto the image of a man he described as a Chinese dictator. This appeared to reference a popular image that superimposes Mbappe's face onto a portrait of Mao, who led China until his death in 1976.

Jokes about Mao are considered disrespectful in China and remain a social taboo. The incident caused significant reaction on Weibo, a major Chinese social media platform. The topic "Dongpeng Beverage ends cooperation with Mbappe" became the most trending subject on the site. One user wrote that the remarks were an extremely serious mistake that crossed a red line and were completely unacceptable.

Other users urged Dongpeng to remove Mbappe's image from their energy drink bottles. Dongqiudi, one of China's largest online football outlets, published a statement on Monday evening. It said Mbappe's comments were offensive to China and the Chinese people and had hurt the feelings of Chinese football fans.

Mbappe had been popular in China prior to the incident. He was known by the nickname Guigui, which is the Chinese word for turtle, because of a meme that compared him to a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. The Real Madrid forward had millions of followers on Chinese social media. During the FIFA World Cup this year, advertisements featuring AI-generated images of Mbappe drinking Dongpeng sports drinks were frequently shown in China.

Mbappe addressed a previous meme depicting him as a military dictator in an interview with the French sports newspaper L'Equipe in September. He said that for some people, the comparisons were in good fun, but noted that there was a less funny aspect because of the damage caused by such figures throughout history. He stated that he did not believe he had ever done anything like murdering others or bringing misery to millions of people.

The announcement from the sponsors came one day after Mbappe lost the Ballon d'Or award to Harry Kane. The Ballon d'Or is considered the most prestigious individual award in football. Mbappe is the captain of the France national team and plays as a forward for Real Madrid.

Global athletes have previously faced backlash in China for commenting on sensitive political topics. In 2023, former NBA player Dwight Howard referred to Taiwan as a country in a video with the island's vice president and current President William Lai Ching-te. This caused anger on Chinese social media. In 2019, Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey posted a tweet supporting Hong Kong protests. China subsequently suspended sponsorship deals with the NBA and removed games from Chinese television for a year.