A spokesperson for state-owned China Media Group’s sports programming center rejected Real Madrid’s statement defending striker Kylian Mbappé over his joke about former Chinese leader Mao Zedong, saying the club “cannot shirk responsibility.” CMG objected to Real Madrid’s stance that Mbappé “never intended to offend anyone and, at the same time, maintains that players have the right to express their personal views,” adding that the remarks “crossed a red line, and gone beyond the bounds of freedom of speech.”
The broadcaster’s rebuke came even as Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said Beijing took Mbappé’s personal apology “seriously.” State television network CCTV warned that the French forward would be judged by his conduct, stating, “We will listen to his words, but watch his actions even more closely.” Meanwhile, Chinese platforms moved to scrub references to the controversy: social media app Xiaohongshu began removing content related to Mbappé following an expired 2024 partnership, translation service Youdao blocked his name, and domestic AI chatbots including DeepSeek and Doubao refused to answer queries about what he said.