China's Communist Party doesn’t want you to talk about Chairman Mao—not really—but, if you must, speak carefully or you’ll be sorry. That was the lesson learned this week by the French soccer player Kylian Mbappé and his employers at Real Madrid, the world’s richest club. They apologized for hurting the feelings of the Chinese people amid a fallout that could cost them millions of dollars.
Mbappé’s crime was to unknowingly insult the memory of China’s late revolutionary leader Mao Zedong, whose name he couldn’t even recall. The star athlete, who is known to be demanding of his teammates, said in an old interview that his favorite meme was of his face superimposed onto the body of a "Chinese dictator." China’s knee-jerk reaction to the seemingly benign remark was a sign of Mao’s complex legacy in the country, half a century after his death. The groveling apologies by some of the biggest names in sport were more proof of the Chinese market’s hold over the West.
And it was another victory for Beijing over Western free speech. The backlash against Mbappé, who later said his comment had "hurt many people in China," included brand deals canceled by at least three Chinese companies. The country’s state television group suspended broadcasts of Real Madrid matches and those of Spain’s top soccer league, La Liga, too.
An estimate republished by Chinese media on Thursday said at least a third of Mbappé’s $30 million annual commercial income comes from China, and that a permanent loss of the Chinese market could deny him over $100 million in future earnings. The stakes are equally high for his club. It earns up to 15 percent of its international merchandising revenue from China, where Mbappé's No. 10 shirt is the club's top-selling item, according to the Spanish newspaper El Mundo.
La Liga will be sweating the most. Nearly a third of its income in the 2024-2025 season—over $1.7 billion—was generated by the sale of media rights, according to its latest financial report. Nearly half of that came from international markets, the biggest of which were China and the United States.
It explains Mbappé’s swift apology within 24 hours, and similar statements of regret from the Spanish league, league president Javier Tebas, and, finally, Real Madrid. "We take seriously the apology he has made," Chinese government spokesperson Guo Jiakun said on Wednesday, without revealing whether Beijing would eventually endorse a resumption of his lucrative brand deals and the matchday broadcasts. The same day, the People’s Daily newspaper, the Communist Party’s official mouthpiece, said: "However, once a public figure’s actions cross the line, their value quickly turns into a liability for the brand.
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