Chinese brands cut ties with soccer star Mbappe over ‘Chinese dictator’ remarks | Hanomansing Live

French soccer superstar Kylian Mbappé is apologizing after a joke about China's former leader sparked a backlash and cost him several sponsorship deals. Three Chinese companies have dropped him after a video surfaced in which he referred to the founder of communist China as a dictator. Mbappé says that he never intended to offend anyone. Chinese state television has reportedly stopped broadcasting his matches. Now that we know why Mbappe is making headlines, I want to bring in someone who is following the reaction that this is getting. Joanna Chu is managing partner at Nuora Global Advisors. That's an international research and strategic advisory firm. She's also a journalist and author who covers geopolitics with a focus on China. Joanna, good to have you on the show. Thank you. Thanks, Erin. So what do you make of the Mbappe controversy and then subsequent apology around just a meme? Well, I've been a journalist for more than 15 years. In the last year, I run my research advisory. We also do crisis communications. So looking at it from both angles as a journalist and now someone who works in comms, it's quite interesting because he's not and he won't be the last celebrity to issue an apology because it's something he said in passing that angered people in china so and but his apology is kind of in the middle of what these celebrity apologies um turn out to be he acknowledged that his comments ill-judged and that it hurt uh chinese people but he he didn't acknowledge or weigh in on whether what he said was accurate or not or concede any political points so it was interesting and definitely reflects a calculation probably from his uh pr team on how to apologize without sparking further controversy so you know so it sounds like he had kind of made this in a the light a light-hearted remark he did call uh the the former communist uh leader a dictator are you surprised that china chinese companies would have the kind of reaction that they did like killing sponsorship deals over a comment like that yeah so not all of his sponsors had the deals um but it's confusing because Mao you know historians have solid grounds to describe how he led as a dictator in China Chairman Mao founded the People's Republic in 1949 and the current uh state's legitimacy rests on his um how he's perceived so a joke about Mao lands to some people as a joke about the country and it's Chairman Mao himself has a mixed and controversial legacy in China a lot of people lived through the Cultural Revolution in the 70s where people were killed like families were torn apart so he's a sensitive figure in China. So but was it a surprise to you to see, you know, that that Chinese reaction to potentially not broadcast matches or to to kill the sponsorship deals? There will be those who might not maybe understand the sensitivity of this. They might think China might be overly sensitive to what was not intended to be harmful. Yeah. So Chinese citizens and the Chinese state are not one in the same and Chinese citizens a lot of them not all um are legitimately quite patriotic and have sensitivity around um comments made by influential people around the world so i wouldn't see this as an example of Chinese state associated uh pressure on a star to self-censor but i would see it more as mostly a commercial calculation uh from his part to issue an apology because of the corporate sponsorships and soccer is increasingly very popular in China um so like when i you know in China like there are satirical t-shirts about Chairman Mao that you can find in stores so not everyone is going to be quite sensitive but it seems like enough I have a reaction to prompt you mentioned at the top that you think that potentially other celebrities could find themselves caught in this uh you know not understanding the not reading the room if you will when it comes to China yeah and not just doing it by accident but deliberately so in um the NBA's case Rocket GM he tweeted support in 2019 for uh the Hong Kong pro-democracy movement and he didn't apologize he issued a statement you know clarifying his position but um sometimes it's not necessarily like people are aware of some of the sensitivities and still choose to speak out in his case it did seem like a off-the-cuff comment can Mbappe restore his uh his fan base can he has he made amends here do you think well again his apology was kind of you know in a couple of stages someone saying i'm sorry i hurt your feelings rather than saying what i said was very wrong he did say it was ill-judged so it's too soon to say on whether this will you know rectify his image to everyone in China, but there hasn't been news of further corporate sponsors cutting ties with him. So that might be the highest priority for him and his team, that they're not leading further lucrative corporate sponsors in China. Okay. Joanna Chu, thank you very much.