Kylian Mbappe’s rocky week went from bad to worse on Tuesday as two major Chinese sponsors terminated their partnerships with the French superstar following a video in which he apparently joked about former leader Mao Zedong.
Drinks giant Dongpeng and dairy behemoth Mengniu, China’s largest dairy producer, both pulled the plug on the Real Madrid forward within hours of the video circulating online. Their statements carried identical language stressing “zero tolerance” for offending national sentiments.
“Our company firmly opposes and has a zero-tolerance policy towards any behaviour that offends national sentiments,” Dongpeng declared, adding that “with immediate effect we are terminating all cooperation with Kylian Mbappe.”
Mengniu echoed the sentiment. “Mengniu firmly opposes and has a zero-tolerance policy towards any words or actions that hurt the feelings of the Chinese people.”
China’s foreign ministry piled on, with spokesman Guo Jiakun warning that “words and actions that hurt the feelings of the Chinese people will naturally be met with unanimous rejection from all sectors of Chinese society.”
The controversy centres on a video, whose authenticity fact check could not immediately verify, showing Mbappe referencing what he described as the funniest internet meme he’d seen: his face photo-shopped onto “some guy, I think he’s a Chinese dictator.” The apparent reference to Mao, China’s founding leader who died in 1976, struck a raw nerve in a country where jokes about the revolutionary icon remain strictly taboo.
Mbappe had been hugely popular in China, fondly nicknamed “Guigui”, the Mandarin translation of “Turtle”, after featuring prominently in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles memes. AI-generated adverts showing him guzzling Dongpeng sports drinks were plastered across Chinese screens during this year’s World Cup. His millions of Chinese social media followers made him a marketing goldmine.
That goodwill evaporated overnight. “Dongpeng Beverage ends cooperation with Mbappe” became Weibo’s top-trending topic, with outraged users demanding his image be scrubbed from energy drink bottles. Dongqiudi, one of China’s biggest football outlets, condemned his “offensive” remarks that “have hurt the feelings of Chinese football fans and the Chinese people.”
Mbappe had previously addressed similar memes in September during an interview with French sports newspaper L’Equipe. “There’s a part of it that’s funny,” he admitted. “But there is another part that’s a bit less funny because of the damage such people have caused throughout history. Being compared to individuals who murder others, or who have brought misery to millions upon millions of people, well, I don’t think I’ve ever done anything like that in my life.”
The timing couldn’t be worse for the 27-year-old, coming just a day after losing out to Harry Kane for the Ballon d’Or.
Also read: Kane lifts Ballon d’Or then sets sights on Champions league glory
Mbappe isn’t the first sports star to feel China’s commercial wrath over perceived slights. Former NBA player Dwight Howard sparked fury in 2023 after referring to Taiwan as a country. Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey’s 2019 tweet supporting Hong Kong protests saw China suspend NBA sponsorship deals and pull games from Chinese television for a year.
