![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/AFP__20261027__D4J38CU__v1__HighRes__FblChinaAdvertisingPoliticsMbappe-1793088093.jpg\")
A bus featuring Mbappe for Dongpeng Beverage Group\u2019s Bushuila electrolyte drink is seen on a street in Shanghai, China [File: Jade Gao\/AFP]<\/p>\nMbappe appears to say that the funniest internet meme he had seen was of his face photo-shopped onto that of \u201ca Chinese dictator\u201d.<\/p>\n
Published On 27 Oct 202627 Oct 2026<\/p>\n
Kylian Mbappe has been dropped by two major brands in China after a video circulated online in which the French football superstar apparently joked about former Chinese leader Mao Zedong.<\/p>\n
In China, jokes about Mao, the country\u2019s founding leader who died in 1976, are considered disrespectful and remain a social taboo.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur company firmly opposes and has a zero-tolerance policy towards any behaviour that offends national sentiments,\u201d drinks giant Dongpeng said in a statement on Tuesday, adding that \u201cwith immediate effect we are terminating all cooperation with Kylian Mbappe\u201d.<\/p>\n
Advertisements showing AI-generated images of the 27-year-old France captain drinking a Dongpeng sports drink were regularly shown in China during this year\u2019s FIFA World Cup.<\/p>\n
Mengniu, China\u2019s largest dairy producer, also cut ties with the Real Madrid forward, who until this incident was hugely popular among Chinese fans with millions of followers on social media.<\/p>\n
Mbappe is fondly nicknamed \u201cGuigui\u201d, the Chinese translation of \u201cturtle\u201d, due to his popularity as a character in a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles meme.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith immediate effect our company is terminating all cooperation with Kylian Mbappe,\u201d Mengniu said in a statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cMengniu firmly opposes and has a zero-tolerance policy towards any words or actions that hurt the feelings of the Chinese people,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n
The announcements came after a video emerged online with Mbappe saying the funniest internet meme he had seen was of his face digitally altered onto that of \u201csome guy \u2013 I think he\u2019s a Chinese dictator\u201d.<\/p>\n
This was an apparent reference to a meme of Mbappe superimposed on an image of Mao, one of several using the footballer\u2019s face and other historical figures.<\/p>\n
\u201cDongpeng Beverage ends cooperation with Mbappe\u201d was the top-trending topic on Chinese social media site Weibo.<\/p>\n
A bus featuring Mbappe for Dongpeng Beverage Group\u2019s Bushuila electrolyte drink is seen on a street in Shanghai, China [File: Jade Gao\/AFP]<\/p>\n
One Weibo user said the \u201cextremely serious wrong remarks \u2026 crossed the red line. They are completely unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Others urged Dongpeng to remove Mbappe\u2019s image from their energy drink bottles.<\/p>\n
Dongqiudi, one of China\u2019s biggest online football outlets, said in a statement on Monday evening that Mbappe\u2019s remarks were \u201coffensive to China and the Chinese people\u201d and \u201chave hurt the feelings of Chinese football fans and the Chinese people\u201d.<\/p>\n
In September, Mbappe addressed a previous meme depicting him as a military dictator in an interview with French sports newspaper L\u2019Equipe.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a part of it that\u2019s funny. You can tell that, for some people, it\u2019s all in good fun. But there is another part that\u2019s a bit less funny because of the damage such people have caused throughout history,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing compared to individuals who murder others, or who have brought misery to millions upon millions of people \u2013 well, I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever done anything like that in my life,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The furore in China came a day after Mbappe lost out to Harry Kane for the Ballon d\u2019Or, the most prestigious individual award in football.<\/p>\n
Global sports stars who have commented on sensitive topics such as Taiwan, Tibet and Hong Kong have previously caused controversy in China and been dumped by sponsors there.<\/p>\n
Former NBA player Dwight Howard referred to Taiwan as a country in 2023 as he appeared in a video with the island\u2019s vice president and current President William Lai Ching-te, causing fury on Chinese social media.<\/p>\n
Beijing claims Taiwan is its territory and has threatened to use force to take control.<\/p>\n
Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey posted a tweet in 2019 supporting Hong Kong protests, leading to China suspending sponsorship deals with the NBA and pulling games off Chinese television for a year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mbappe appears to say that the funniest internet meme he had seen was of his face photo-shopped onto…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":948031,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[6109,49,48,95,527,561,457,82],"class_list":["post-948030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-asia-pacific","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-china","tag-football","tag-soccer","tag-sport","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/948030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=948030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/948030\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/948031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=948030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=948030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=948030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}