On Monday night, as Kylian Mbappé attended the Ballon d’Or ceremony in London, he also became the centre of a huge controversy on Chinese social media.
Football fans had come across a clip of him joking about the meme that makes him “laugh the most”, in which his face is superimposed on a “Chinese dictator” resembling Mao Zedong, who oversaw one of the bloodiest chapters in the country’s past.
The controversy spread rapidly. Chinese brands cut ties with him one by one, and China Media Group, the parent group of state broadcaster CCTV, suspended broadcasts of La Liga matches. A 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.”
On the Chinese internet, however, few were explicitly spelling out those words and actions, or even using Mao’s name, despite his status as a near-sacred figure in the country. China’s sophisticated 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 seemed enough to trigger a tsunami of anger. Social media algorithms amplified it within a heavily controlled internet, where people are wary of disagreeing with the majority view.
It was not long before Mbappé, one of the biggest football stars in the world, said he was “sincerely sorry” for his “ill-judged” comment. His club, Real Madrid, and La Liga also issued apologies. China is a huge market for the world’s most popular sport.
Beijing later confirmed that it was taking the footballer’s apology “seriously”. China Media Group has yet to say whether broadcasts will resume.
“An apology is the least he should do, but I don’t forgive him. I support a ban on him,” read a top comment on Weibo.
Mbappé did not mention Mao by name in the interview, but many felt that any joke involving the founder of Communist China crossed a line.
“Do you know who you hurt? He is the spiritual pillar of the Chinese people,” read one Weibo comment, which was liked by more than 700 users.
“He’s the most important figure in our history. Do you think a simple apology can make everything okay?” another wrote.
Confusion over what was said
Ironically, despite the heavy backlash, many on Chinese social media were still asking exactly what the French forward had said. They tried AI chatbots, which are just as censored as the Chinese internet and could not provide any answers. Others attempted to explain, but skirted around any mention of Mao.
References were made to “the person on the 100 yuan note” and “the teacher”, a title Mao once used for himself. Screenshots of the meme and interview were shared, with both the word “dictator” and Mbappé’s face blurred out.
Neither the Chinese foreign ministry statement nor the apologies issued by Mbappé, Real Madrid and La Liga mentioned Mao directly.
Mao’s legacy in China
Mao led the Chinese Communist Party to victory in the civil war and founded the People’s Republic of China. He died in 1976. Despite the turmoil of his rule, including the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, which led to a famine that killed tens of millions and unleashed violent purges across Chinese society, he remains a revered figure in China.
A portrait of Mao overlooks Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, a symbol of how central he remains in the modern Chinese imagination. Unlike other former Chinese leaders, his embalmed body is placed on public display there, drawing tens of thousands of visitors every day. In recent years, there has been a revival of interest in him among young people, who read his works and watch clips of him on social media.
Chinese history books downplay the devastation of Mao’s rule. The Chinese Communist Party’s verdict is that his achievements outweigh his mistakes, and it describes him as “a great revolutionary and a great Marxist”.
Reaction beyond the mainland
Outside China, however, history sees Mao as both a revolutionary and a dictator. Reactions among the diaspora, including dissidents and people whose families fled China decades ago in the wake of Mao’s rule, were very different.
“You don’t need to apologise, you are not wrong,” read a highly liked comment written in Chinese under the football star’s X statement.
“The ones who should apologise are the CCP; they kidnapped the Chinese people and brainwashed them,” another Chinese user wrote.
On X and Threads, neither of which is accessible in China, the controversy spawned even more memes. Some feature Mbappé’s face on other images of Mao, while others go further, placing him on the body of current Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
The rest of the internet, meanwhile, was 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.
“How dare you call a dictator a dictator? Terrible,” another user wrote on X.