China says Mbappé scored an own goal with his off-the-cuff ‘Chinese dictator’ remark

French football star Kylian Mbappé has faced severe backlash from China after he jokingly remarked that the funniest internet meme he had seen was that of his face photo-shopped onto that of a “Chinese dictator”, taken as an unmistakable reference to Mao Zedong, Communist China’s founding father.

In China, jokes about Mao, the country’s founding leader who died in 1976, are considered disrespectful and remain a social taboo. There is also a law in China which punished people who show disrespect toward the country’s heroes.

Mbappé reportedly told French talk show The Bridge that a meme “that makes me laugh the most…the one where there’s a video of a guy, I think it’s a Chinese dictator”. As he speaks, a meme appears with his face superimposed on an image resembling Mao, noted bbc.com Oct 27.

“I use it with my friends all the time,” the Real Madrid forward and the French national team captain is stated to add in clips that have been circulating online.

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