China made Mbappé apologise - but many don't know exactly what he said

Kylian Mbappé was attending the Ballon d'Or ceremony in London on Monday night when he became the centre of a huge controversy on Chinese social media. Football fans had found a clip of the France and Real Madrid forward joking about the meme that makes him "laugh the most", in which his face is superimposed on a "Chinese dictator" resembling Mao Zedong, the leader who oversaw one of the bloodiest chapters in China's past. The backlash spread rapidly. Chinese brands cut ties with the footballer one by one, including dairy company Mengniu, an official sponsor of the Fifa World Cup, and China Media Group, the parent group of state broadcaster CCTV, suspended broadcasts of La Liga matches. A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said: "Words and actions that hurt the feelings of the Chinese people will naturally be met with joint opposition from all sectors of Chinese society." But on the Chinese internet, few were spelling out what those words and actions were, and the name of Mao, who remains a near-sacred figure in China, was rarely used. China's censorship system, which cuts 1.4 billion people off from the global internet, meant many did not know exactly what had happened. The accusation of "hurting the feelings of the Chinese people" alone appeared enough to trigger widespread anger, amplified by social media algorithms and an internet where people are wary of disagreeing with the majority view. Mbappé, one of the biggest football stars in the world, soon said he was "sincerely sorry" for his "ill-judged" comment. His club Real Madrid and the Spanish league La Liga also issued apologies, with China representing a huge market for the world's most popular sport. Beijing later confirmed it was taking the apology "seriously", though China Media Group has yet to say whether broadcasts will resume. None of the statements from the foreign ministry, Mbappé, Real Madrid or La Liga mentioned Mao directly. On Weibo, reactions were sharply critical. "An apology is the least he should do, but I don't forgive him. I support a ban on him," read one top comment. Another, liked by more than 700 users, said: "Do you know who you hurt? He is the spiritual pillar of the Chinese people." Mbappé did not mention Mao by name in the interview, but many felt any joke involving the founder of Communist China crossed a line. Weibo users shared the clip while blurring the meme and redacting references to Mao, with some referring to "the person on the 100 yuan note" or "the teacher", a title Mao once used for himself. Screenshots circulated with both the word "dictator" and Mbappé's face blurred out. His Weibo account was banned from being followed by new users on Tuesday. Ironically, many Chinese social media users were still asking what exactly the French forward had said. They tried AI chatbots, which are as censored as the Chinese internet and provided no answers. Others attempted to explain but avoided any mention of Mao. Mao, who led the Chinese Communist Party to victory in the civil war and founded the People's Republic of China, died in 1976. Despite the turmoil of his rule, including the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, which produced a famine that killed tens of millions and unleashed violent purges across Chinese society, he remains revered. A portrait of him overlooks Beijing's Tiananmen Square, his embalmed body is on public display there, drawing tens of thousands of visitors daily, and interest in him has revived among young people in recent years. Chinese history books downplay the devastation of his rule, and the Communist Party's verdict is that his achievements outweigh his mistakes, describing him as "a great revolutionary and a great Marxist". Outside China, where history views Mao as both a revolutionary and a dictator, reactions were very different, particularly among the diaspora, including people whose families fled China in the wake of his rule. "You don't need to apologise, you are not wrong," read a highly liked Chinese-language comment under Mbappé's statement on X. Another wrote that the ones who should apologise were the CCP. On X and Threads, neither of which is accessible in China, the controversy spawned more memes, some placing Mbappé's face on other images of Mao and others on the body of current Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Elsewhere on the internet, many were simply puzzled. "It's honestly hard to understand... It seems like people aren't allowed to speak out against their leaders. And they expect the whole world to think the same way they do? That's ridiculous," read a top comment under Real Madrid's apology on Instagram.