Mbappe loses Chinese sponsors after Mao comments spark backlash

Chinese brands have ended advertising contracts with France captain Kylian Mbappe after a video emerged in which he joked about former Chinese leader Mao Zedong. Dongpeng, a drinks producer, said it was terminating all cooperation with immediate effect and stated it has a zero-tolerance policy toward behaviour that offends national sentiments. Mengniu, China's largest dairy producer, also cut ties with the Real Madrid forward.

State broadcaster CCTV removed advertisements featuring Mbappe, stopped broadcasting matches involving him, and deleted related posts from its official Weibo account. The Xiaohongshu platform also blocked his account after the comments spread online. His official accounts on both platforms had roughly one million followers each.

“Our company firmly opposes and has a zero-tolerance policy towards any behaviour that offends national sentiments.”

Additional consumer companies joined the withdrawal. Eastroc Beverage Group Co. and China Mengniu Dairy Co. announced they were ending their partnerships with Mbappe, while cheese manufacturer Milkground said it was immediately ending cooperation with the French player.

The backlash affected financial markets as well. Eastroc shares fell as much as 4.1 percent in Shanghai after the controversy, while Mengniu shares also declined.

China's foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said words or acts considered offensive to the Chinese people inevitably face broad opposition from society and described the rejection as natural. Jokes about Mao, who died in 1976, remain a social taboo in China.

Mbappe, who is 27 years old, was previously hugely popular among Chinese fans and had millions of followers on social media. He is nicknamed Guigui, the Chinese translation of Turtle, because of his popularity as a character in a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles meme.