Mbappé’s “dictator” label, however, triggered sharp rebuke in China. Several Chinese broadcasters suspended coverage related to Mbappé and Spanish soccer league LaLiga, while some brands pulled ads that featured the sports star. A spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday, before Mbappé’s apology, that “words and deeds that hurt the feelings of the Chinese people will naturally be met with opposition from all sectors of Chinese society.”

Parody of Chinese leaders is politically sensitive in China, not least mockery of Mao, who founded the People’s Republic of China in 1949 and ruled the country till his death in 1976.

Many international scholars have described Mao as an authoritarian leader, pointing to his centralized rule, political purges, and aggressive state campaigns, including the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. Historians estimate that tens of millions of people died during Mao’s rule as a result of famine and violence. But within China, many view him as a revolutionary figure who unified the country and transformed a largely agrarian society into an independent nation. While official accounts have condemned the Cultural Revolution as a “grave blunder,” those same accounts argue that Mao’s lifetime contributions to the Chinese revolution outweighed his mistakes. The Chinese Constitution describes the state as the “people’s democratic dictatorship,” defined as a proletarian dictatorship.