Kylian Mbappé’s China crisis shows how sensitive Mao’s legacy remains

It’s been a bad start to the week for the France forward Kylian Mbappé. He missed out on joining the elite roster of Ballon d’Or winners, and instead became the latest high-profile addition to a far less illustrious list – that of foreign brands and individuals charged with “hurting the feelings of the Chinese people”.

The saga began when a video of the Real Madrid player making light of a meme involving him and China’s former leader Mao Zedong began spreading.

Related: Kylian Mbappé apologises after being dropped by Chinese brands for Mao Zedong comment

Within hours Mbappé found himself condemned online, before being unceremoniously dropped by brands, then held responsible for state television suspending the entire top Spanish league from its schedule. On Tuesday Mbappé apologised – “My comment was ill-judged, and I now understand that it hurt many people in China – as did La Liga, which released a statement saying it “deeply regrets the offence that Kylian Mbappé’s recent comments have caused among Chinese fans”.

Foreign brands from Mercedes to Versace and celebrities from John Cena to Katy Perry have previously been sent to the sin bin for crossing China’s political lines on Tibet, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Mbappé’s case shows how sensitive Mao’s legacy remains in China 50 years after his death – to the extent that most Chinese coverage of the affair does not even mention what the footballer said.

In the video, Mbappé references a meme of himself and “a guy … I think he was a Chinese dictator”, after which a composite image of Mbappé’s face on Mao’s body pops up. (Mbappé has been nicknamed “the dictator” since his time at Paris Saint-Germain, a joke referring to his perceived influence at the club.)

The football app Dongqiudi was among the first to release a statement condemning his “inappropriate remarks”, but said: “Because his comments were offensive to China and the Chinese people, we cannot translate them.”

Chinese media have reported on reactions such as the brand desertions, and the China Football Association’s lodging of a “stern protest” with Real Madrid – who on Wednesday apologised “to the Chinese people for any offence caused” – but have generally steered clear of outlining Mbappé’s precise offence.

The topic was still trending on Chinese social media on Wednesday morning, with one hashtag relating to the superstar’s apology boasting more than 600m views.

Some posts asked variations on a simple question: “What did he actually say?”

“Many netizens without a VPN are still left in the dark about why all the talk about boycotting Mbappé is actually happening,” said Manya Koetse, editor of the Eye on Digital China newsletter, on X.

Still, many expressed anger at what was characterised as disrespect for, as well as a misunderstanding of, China’s history.

“For the majority of the [Chinese] people, Mao was and is still not seen as negatively as it is believed in the west,” said Mobo Gao, professor of Chinese studies at Adelaide University.

Mao was the founding leader of modern China, but his legacy includes radical policies such as the Great Leap Forward, an industrialisation policy blamed for a famine that killed as many as 30 million people by some estimates.

The ruling Communist party (CCP) maintains Mao was a revolutionary hero, though after his death it acknowledged another extreme policy, the violent Cultural Revolution, was a “grave mistake”.

“There has been intense tension between Mao hatred and Mao support among the Chinese themselves,” said Gao. “This tension is even more keenly felt since the economy has slowed.”

Some scholars have pointed to a resurgence of interest in Mao among younger Chinese, with a yearning for a time they regard as more idealistic and egalitarian – something the CCP is keen to keep in check.

Jennifer Pan, professor of communication at Stanford University, said the difficulty of doing independent social science surveys over the past decade meant “our understanding of what Chinese people actually think is weak”.

“Social media doesn’t fill that gap,” she said. “It’s noisy, unrepresentative, and censored. What we see is that companies, platforms, broadcasters and the foreign ministry moved together quickly. Did this follow public anger, or did this produce public anger? Either is possible, and we can’t tell which came firs.”

Whichever way round, the financial cost for Mbappé is the same. His face is a common sight on Chinese buses, in subways and in online ads, and his commercial deals could be worth “as much as $30m (£22.6m) per year”, estimated Mark Dreyer, author of Sporting Superpower, a book about China’s ambitions in the sector.

However, “as soon as someone else has decided you’ve crossed the line, it’s a race to who can cut ties quickest, who can be the most patriotic”, he said. “Then you have to kiss the ring – there really is no other way if you want to stay in the market.”

Mbappé’s and La Liga’s swift apologies suggest they are trying to avoid a fate like the NBA, whose lucrative pre-season matches were shut out of China for six years after the Houston Rockets’ then general manager, Daryl Morey, voiced support for Hong Kong pro-democracy protests in 2019.

La Liga may have better luck, with the state broadcaster CCTV saying it would listen to what Mbappé had to say, and “more importantly” watch what he does.

On Wednesday a foreign ministry spokesperson, Guo Jiakun, said: “We take seriously the apology the individual concerned has made.”

Dreyer said: “It doesn’t sound like it’s an instant: ‘All is forgiven.’ But it sounds like they’re going to be a little bit more, for want of a better word, reasonable.”