{"id":896206,"date":"2026-10-27T09:22:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-27T09:22:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/896206\/"},"modified":"2026-10-27T09:22:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-27T09:22:14","slug":"kylian-mbappe-dropped-by-chinese-brands-for-offending-national-sentiments-kylian-mbappe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/896206\/","title":{"rendered":"Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 dropped by Chinese brands for \u2018offending national sentiments\u2019 | Kylian Mbapp\u00e9"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 was dropped Tuesday by two major brands in China after a video circulated online in which the French football superstar apparently joked about former leader Mao Zedong.<\/p>\n

In China<\/a> 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, adding that \u201cwith immediate effect we are terminating all cooperation with Kylian Mbappe\u201d.<\/p>\n

Adverts 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 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

Mbapp\u00e9 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

Two Chinese brands have ended deals with Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 after he allegedly referred to Mao Zedong as a \u2018Chinese dictator\u2019. Photograph: Karwai Tang\/WireImage<\/p>\n

The announcements came after a video emerged online with Mbapp\u00e9 saying that the funniest internet meme he had seen was of his face photo-shopped on to that of \u201csome guy \u2013 I think he\u2019s a Chinese dictator\u201d.<\/p>\n

This was an apparent reference to a meme of Mbapp\u00e9 superimposed on an image of Mao, one of several using the footballer\u2019s face and other historical figures.<\/p>\n

The authenticity of the video could not immediately be verified by AFP Fact Check.<\/p>\n

\u201cDongpeng Beverage ends cooperation with Mbappe\u201d was the top-trending topic on Chinese social media site Weibo.<\/p>\n

One Weibo user said that the \u201cextremely serious wrong remarks \u2026 crossed the red line. They are completely unacceptable\u201d.<\/p>\n

Others urged Dongpeng to remove Mbapp\u00e9\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 Mbapp\u00e9\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

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Mbapp\u00e9 in September 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 Mbapp\u00e9 lost out to Harry Kane for the Ballon d\u2019Or<\/a>, the most prestigious individual award in football.<\/p>\n

Global sports stars that 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 Lai Ching-te, sparking fury on Chinese social media.<\/p>\n

Beijing claims Taiwan is part of its territory and has threatened to use force to bring it under its 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":"Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 was dropped Tuesday by two major brands in China after a video circulated online in which…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":896207,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[403,99],"class_list":["post-896206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/896206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=896206"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/896206\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/896207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=896206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=896206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=896206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}