China confirmed on Wednesday that it takes French soccer star Kylian Mbappé's apology for comments in which he appeared to be joking about former Chinese leader Mao Zedong "seriously."
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiaqun said during a regular press conference: “We take seriously the apology made by the person concerned.”
Jokes about Mao, the founder of People's China who died in 1976, are considered offensive in China and remain a social taboo.
Several Chinese brands have stopped their cooperation with Mbappe, and Chinese state television has canceled the broadcast of Spanish football league matches.
The Real Madrid striker apologized on Tuesday after saying that the funniest photo circulated of him on the Internet was the one in which his face was digitally superimposed on the image of “some man, I think he is a Chinese dictator,” in an apparent reference to Mao.
Mbappe's original joke was not reposted on, or may have been deleted from, heavily censored Chinese social media platforms, while state media avoided any reference to Mao, saying only that the player had made "inappropriate statements related to China." But the footballer continued to face a torrent of criticism from Chinese users on Wednesday.
One user wrote on the Weibo platform: “His statements were offensive to China and the Chinese people, so they cannot be translated.”
At the same time, the “Xiaohongshu” platform froze Mbappe’s account, which is followed by more than a million people, preventing him from gaining new followers.
The same action was taken on the Weibo application, where a notification appeared stating that “following this user has been blocked due to his violation of the laws or the Weibo Community Agreement.”
Chinese media reports reported that international brands such as Dior and Hublot removed content related to Mbappe from their Weibo accounts.
A search conducted by “Agence France-Presse” on the pages of “Dior” and “Hublo” on Weibo, using the Chinese name for Mbappe, did not show any results.
Offline too, the brand associated with Mbappé appeared to be being removed from stores.
When Agence France-Presse visited the main Adidas store in the Sanlitun shopping district in Beijing, Real Madrid shirts were for sale, but without any shirt bearing Mbappe’s name.
However, Mbappe-related products, including unofficial shirts, woolen hats and plain ones, are still available on the e-commerce platform Taobao.
Chinese official media had previously praised Mbappe, describing him as a “football phenomenon” and a “talent,” and the striker is also widely popular among fans in the country.
His picture is spread on billboards, on cans of salt-replacement drinks, and across social media platforms. Mbappe is also sometimes known by the nickname “Guigui” in China, which means “turtle,” due to the resemblance between him and a character from the movie “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.”
Spaniard Mikel Arteta described Arsenal's shocking exit from the English Football League Cup against Fleetwood Town, a fourth-tier club, as a "very sad day", after the English Premier League champion suffered one of the most embarrassing results in its history.
Arteta's team bid farewell to the competition in the fourth round, losing 3-5 on penalties in a resounding surprise, after regular time ended in a 1-1 draw.
Arsenal's Brazilian Bruno Guimaraes missed his penalty kick after Jay Lynch blocked it, before Connor Haughey scored the winning kick for Fleetwood.
Aaron Lobalo-Bee had given Fleetwood the lead in the first half, before Sweden's Victor Geukeris equalized the score after the break.
Arsenal's rising talent, Max Doumann (16 years old), received a red card for violent behavior in the final minutes.
Arteta paid the price for giving priority to facing Liverpool in the league on Sunday. His decisions to make 9 changes to the lineup had disastrous results.
The Gunners coach admitted that his team had no justification for leaving, stressing that what happened was a painful moment during his time with the club.
Arteta said: “First, I congratulate Fleetwood on qualifying for the next round. “The way they achieved this, for us, makes this a very sad day.”
He added: “It is clear that we had a lot of possession of the ball, created many chances and shot a lot, and if you want to settle matters and not go to penalty kicks, you have to take advantage of these opportunities. We did not do that.”
The former assistant coach to Pep Guardiola at Manchester City continued: “There is nothing to criticize the players for in terms of spirit or commitment. The desire and determination were clear from the beginning, even when we played with ten players. But we conceded a very bad goal at the beginning, which gave them momentum.”
He continued: “This is football, and this is the beauty of this competition. "It is a very sad day."
Arsenal equaled leaders Manchester City in the league after beating Everton 2-0 on Saturday.
But instead of extending the streak of 11 victories in the last 13 matches, Arteta’s team returned to North London embarrassed after a loss that falls among the darkest days in the club’s rich history.
Arteta said: “There is no problem at all with regard to fighting spirit. Otherwise I would be very angry right now. I'm sad and I think we're all sad. We have a great responsibility to represent this logo in the best way possible.”
He added: “When you do not capitalize on your opportunities, you do not deserve to qualify for the next round. Unfortunately, we left.”
Although the decision to expel Duman seemed harsh after he attempted to direct a kick at Harrison Neil, Arteta was not satisfied with the 16-year-old player, and directed him firm words as he left the field.
When asked what he said to Douman, he replied: “This is something we talked about before the match. It is difficult to see the shot clearly through the cameras in this way, so I prefer to review it well first and then evaluate the situation.
