People’s Daily rebukes Mbappe for China remarks

28th October 2026 – (Beijing) People’s Daily and a Zhejiang propaganda outlet today piled fresh pressure on Real Madrid forward Kylian Mbappe after his interview joke about a meme linking his face to a “Chinese dictator”, branding the episode as “eating while smashing the pot” and saying dazzling skill cannot excuse a missing moral floor.

The People’s Daily-linked “Renmin Ruiping” commentary, titled as a cautionary mirror for public figures after Mbappe’s “crash”, said Chinese fans were furious at the French star’s China-related remarks. Although he has already issued an apology, the piece asked why a much-courted footballer had suddenly become someone brands and platforms rush to cut loose.

Mbappe’s value, the article granted, is real: rare talent and match-night brilliance for supporters, a vast following and commercial pull for companies. Yet once a celebrity crosses a red line, that value flips into a liability no sponsor will share. Chinese platforms and firms moving to sever ties were therefore both a matter of principle and ordinary commercial logic.

It cited global parallels — US racer Kyle Larson losing McDonald’s and his seat in 2020 after a racial slur, and model Gigi Hadid facing backlash in 2017 over a slant-eye gesture — to argue that fame rests on public trust. The bigger the name, the heavier the duty; touch a nerve and the halo vanishes. In a globalised market, respecting other countries’ history, customs and national feelings is a basic rule, not an optional courtesy. Enjoying rich returns from a market while slighting what its people hold dear — “eating while smashing the pot” — will not be accepted anywhere, the commentary said, closing with China’s welcome for talent that knows respect, reverence and proportion.

The WeChat account Zhejiang Propaganda, run by the Zhejiang Provincial Party Committee Propaganda Department, went further. It said traffic and capital had packaged Mbappe’s pace into a next-generation superstar, buoyed by Chinese fans and national brands — until the row punctured the filter. Superb football, it wrote, cannot make up for character gaps or a missing bottom line; he “does not deserve” mass attention and adulation.

China’s market, the Zhejiang piece argued, had treated him with openness: fans cheering and spending, names such as Mengniu and Dongpeng lifting his commercial worth. What he returned, it charged, was contempt that wounded national feeling. Domestic brands then cut ties; China Central Television and other platforms pulled his match coverage, promo material and ads. Harvesting Chinese traffic while insulting the audience that paid for it, the outlet said, is contemptible — and talent is never a licence for arrogance.

Mbappe posted apologies in Chinese, English and French on X on the evening of 27th October. Zhejiang Propaganda replied that respect is not crisis PR rolled out after the bill arrives; if he truly knew what he had done wrong, he would not have waited for outrage and commercial pain before saying sorry.