Kylian Mbappé dropped by Chinese brands for 'offending national sentiments'

Mbappé dropped by Chinese beverage and dairy brands after a video showed him apparently joking about Mao Zedong as a 'dictator', violating social taboos in China.

Kylian Mbappé was dropped by two major Chinese brands on Tuesday after a video circulated online in which the Real Madrid forward apparently joked about former Chinese leader Mao Zedong. Dongpeng Beverage and Mengniu, China's largest dairy producer, both terminated their sponsorship deals with the French captain, citing zero-tolerance policies towards behaviour that offends national sentiments.

In the video, Mbappé described a meme as showing "some guy – I think he's a Chinese dictator", an apparent reference to a meme superimposing his face on an image of Mao. In China, jokes about Mao, the country's founding leader who died in 1976, are considered deeply disrespectful and remain a social taboo. The incident sparked significant backlash on Chinese social media, with "Dongpeng Beverage ends cooperation with Mbappe" becoming the top-trending topic on Weibo.

Mbappé had been hugely popular among Chinese fans prior to the controversy, with millions of followers on social media and a nickname "Guigui" (Chinese for "Turtle") derived from a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles meme. The furore came a day after he lost out to Harry Kane for the Ballon d'Or.