How did Kylian Mbappé become the biggest star of China's Fifth Plenum?

Believe it or not, the biggest star of the fifth plenum wasn't Xi Jinping or any other Chinese leader. It was a French football superstar. This French superstar somehow found himself at the center of a political firestorm in China, right as the CCP's top leaders were meeting behind closed doors in Beijing. His offense? Laughing at an internet meme depicting him as Mao Zedong. You see, he was given the nickname, the dictator. Because of his influence or perceived influence over club decisions. So his fans began photoshopping his face onto historical dictators, including Stalin and Mao. And during a casual conversation on a French program in April. Mbappé was asked about his favorite meme, and he picked the Mao image and mentioned using it while playing video games with friends. It was just a joke among football fans, right? Not in China. On October the 26th, the very day the CCP's fifth plenum opened, the clip began circulating online. China's leading football platform, called Dongqiu Di, quickly condemned Mbappé for offending China and the Chinese people. And then, all hell broke loose. China's state media joined the condemnation. The Global Times warned that anyone who disrespects China shouldn't expect to make money from the Chinese market. China Daily warned about the consequences for Mbappe's commercial relationship, and CCTV demanded apologies and suspended broadcasts of Spain's La Liga football matches. Meanwhile, some official media platforms removed previous coverage of Mbappe. In the end, the football player issued a written apology in three languages, English, French, and Chinese. La Liga president apologized too. And then on the 28th, Real Madrid apologized as well. All this over an internet meme. So here's where the story, I'm not done. You haven't heard the real story, the real funny part of this story. The real funny part is that the story is becoming comical. As the controversy exploded across Chinese social media and state media, millions and possibly tens of millions of people were being told that Mbappé had insulted China. Now, there was just one problem. Many had absolutely no idea what he had actually said. Why? Because none of the state media translated his remarks or talked about what he actually said, claiming they were too offensive to repeat. Now think about that. People were expected to condemn Mbappe without knowing what they were condemning. Chinese netizens began complaining that The trending topics were full of companies canceling contracts with Mbappe, yet nobody could explain exactly what he had said. So they started investigating. Some searched overseas websites, others used, I mean, eventually they found out, but they can't talk about it. So they used clever hints to explain the controversy to each other. Without mentioning Mao directly. So one user offered a particularly amusing clue. So he said, well, he was talking about the person on the 100 yuan banknote. Of course, Mao Zedong. Imagine that Chinese internet users had to solve a riddle just to figure out why they were supposed to be angry. It was almost like a nationwide guessing game. But the absurdity didn't end there. Chinese platforms and major brands began making Mbappe disappear. His accounts on Weibo and Xiaohongshu were restricted. AFP searched for Mbappe on the official Weibo accounts of luxury brands like Dior and the watch brand, what do you call that, Hublot? Hublot? Nothing. They couldn't find anything. At an Adidas flagship store in Beijing, reporters found Real Madrid jerseys, but not a single one bearing Mbappé's name. So one of the world's most famous football players had suddenly become a non-existent person, at least on parts of China's internet. Why shouldn't it be just internet? In parts of China as well. And here's the irony. Chinese companies have paid enormous sums of money to associate themselves with his fame, with this football player's fame. But after one joke about Mao, they couldn't distance themselves from him fast enough. The Chinese authorities and media had turned an old internet joke into a national controversy while making the joke itself practically unmentionable. Now, this might sound like just another episode of China's heavy-handed response to a foreign celebrity, but there's something about this particular controversy that I found much more intriguing, and that's the timing. Why now? Why October the 26th? Remember, when the controversy erupted, it was on October 26th, the very first day of the fifth plenum. Now, here's what I found I'm suspicious. The meme wasn't new. It had been circulating among football fans for years. And the video clip dated back to April, roughly six months earlier. And the Chinese football platform that started this controversy, Dongqiu Di, had reportedly translated and published the entire one and a half hour interview. that Mbappé gave on that French, what is it called? The French program is called The Bridge. And they had already translated and published that interview months before the controversy. So they had seen the clip. They were fully aware of everything he said. So why did the controversy suddenly explode on October the 26th? And why did the response escalate so quickly? It's so out of control. Football media condemned Mbappe. Major Chinese corporations cut ties. Social media platforms restricted his accounts. And state broadcasters and state media outlets, no, state broadcasters suspended football coverage. Some media platforms removed older programs containing him. And state media outlets launched an attack on him, all within a remarkably short period of time. To me, this kind of a maneuver isn't viral. There's a hand behind it. It's politically motivated. In China, it's politically motivated. The question is why. My answer is the fifth plenum. The fifth plenum was drawing intense attention because of the questions surrounding Xi Jinping's leadership, the ongoing purges, and the political struggle inside the party. So on the 26th, an online letter purportedly representing students from 14 Chinese universities called for restoring presidential term limits, political reform, and freedom of expression. And then on the next day, there was a poster circulating calling for people to say no. And then also, on the 26th or the 27th, these two days marked the third anniversary of former Premier Li Keqiang's death, because he actually died on the 26th, but the announcement came on the 27th. People believe he died on the 26th, but legally, he was pronounced dead after midnight, on the 27th. So that's another politically sensitive occasion. So at this precise moment, China suddenly found itself consumed by outrage over a French football superstar. Was that just a coincidence? Did the Mbappé controversy become a convenient way to divert public attention? from what was happening inside Beijing. Now, in the past, Beijing has routinely created viral events to stir up public sentiment, to avoid or divert public attention. They have done this many times before. So in the end, it's not just about what people are allowed to say in China. It's also about what they are encouraged to feel, to be angry about. But in the French football players case, I don't think Beijing's plan worked because it created more curiosity than anger as people didn't know what to be upset about. In the end, as people look for the answer or for the truth, they may end up agreeing with Mbappé. Thank you so much for watching. If you're new here, please hit subscribe. Don't forget to give my video a like. If you want me to answer your questions directly, please join my live every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday at 9 p.m. Eastern Time. I'd love to chat with you there.