China maintains Mbappé boycott despite his apology
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on La Nouvelle Tribune
China has acknowledged Kylian Mbappé’s apology after his joke about Mao Zedong, without announcing an end to measures targeting the footballer. Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun responded in Beijing on Wednesday 28 October, according to La Nouvelle Tribune.
China’s Foreign Ministry acknowledged Kylian Mbappé’s apology for his comments about Mao Zedong without announcing the lifting of measures targeting the footballer in China, La Nouvelle Tribune reports. “We take seriously the apology he has offered,” the ministry’s spokesman, Guo Jiakun, said in Beijing on Wednesday 28 October.
Mbappé had published a statement on Tuesday in French, Chinese and English, in which he acknowledged that his comment was ill-advised and had hurt people in China and Chinese communities around the world. The controversy arose from a video from the programme The Bridge, in which the player referred to a “Chinese dictator” while the image showed Mao, founder of the People’s Republic of China.
The comments had already led to commercial consequences for Mbappé’s Spanish club, Real Madrid, including the loss of Chinese sponsors after the joke about Mao. La Liga, which organises the Spanish league, had also apologised to China after the player’s comments.
