In China, making jokes about Mao - the founder of the People's Republic of China, who died in 1976 - is treated as disrespect and is one of the greatest social taboos. The reaction of the two companies is therefore not surprising.
"Our company firmly opposes any behavior that offends national feelings and has a zero-tolerance policy towards it," said beverage manufacturer Dongpeng in a statement. "With immediate effect, we are ending any cooperation with Kylian Mbappé," it added.
Advertisements featuring an AI-generated image of the 27-year-old French captain drinking a Dongpeng sports drink were regularly broadcast in China during this year's World Cup.
Mengniu, the largest dairy producer in China, decided to take a similar step. The company also terminated the contract with the Real Madrid striker, who had previously been extremely popular among Chinese fans and had millions of followers on local social media.
“With immediate effect, our company is ending all cooperation with Kylian Mbappé,” Mengniu said in a statement. "We firmly oppose words and actions that hurt the feelings of the Chinese people," it stressed.
A video with a "dictator" causing problems
Both statements were issued shortly after the publication of a video in which Mbappe confesses that the funniest meme he had seen online was his own face pasted in place of "some guy - probably a Chinese dictator."
The footballer most likely referred to a popular meme with the image of Mao with his face superimposed on it (Mbappé is often the hero of remakes of historical figures).
AFP Fact Check journalists could not immediately verify the authenticity of the recording.
In China, Mbappe has until now been fondly called "guigui" (the Chinese translation of the word "turtle"), a reference to memes comparing him to the characters of "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles."
The news that Dongpeng Beverage was ending cooperation with him quickly became the top topic on the Chinese social networking site Weibo. One of the platform's users wrote that these were "extremely strong, inappropriate comments (...) that crossed the red line and are absolutely unacceptable." Others called on the manufacturer to immediately remove the footballer's image from energy drink cans.
Dongqiudi, one of the largest sports websites in China, said in a statement on Monday that Mbappe's statement was "offensive to China and the Chinese people" and "hurt the feelings of fans and the entire nation."
The French star is critical of memes
The topic of memes in which Mbappe compares himself to various dictators was already discussed in an interview with the French "L'Équipe".
There is an element of fun to it, and I understand that for some people it is purely a joke. But there is another, less funny side - when you consider the amount of damage such people have caused throughout history. Comparing me to people who have murdered others or brought misery to millions of people is far-fetched. I don't think I've ever done anything like that, said the French captain.
A wave of criticism in China fell on Mbappe just a day after he lost to Harry Kane in the fight for the most prestigious individual trophy in the world of football - the Ballon d'Or.
Not just Mbappe
This is not the first time that foreign athletes covering politically sensitive topics (such as the status of Taiwan, Tibet or Hong Kong) have incurred ire in China and lost local sponsors.
In 2023, former NBA star Dwight Howard caused a firestorm on Chinese social media when he referred to the island as a "country" during a promotional event with Taiwanese vice president (and now president) Lai Ching-te. Beijing considers Taiwan an inseparable part of its territory and does not rule out the use of force to take control over it.
