French soccer star Kylian Mbappe learned just how easily the Chinese Communist Party can flop. Mbappe never should have backed down or apologized for a funny meme.
Circulating across the internet, there is a meme of Mbappe’s face pasted over the body of the Chinese dictator, Mao Zedong. When asked which is his favorite meme of himself, Mbappe said it was the Mao meme, adding, “I think he was a Chinese dictator.”
For this throw-away comment (and indisputable fact), Chinese companies have cut ties with Mbappe. The CCP’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson responded, “Words and actions that hurt the feelings of the Chinese people will naturally be met with joint opposition from all sectors of Chinese society.” Mbappe has since apologized for the offense.
This incident should serve as a reminder that there is no such thing as a private company in Communist China. If the CCP is offended, they pull the strings of Chinese companies. If CCP leaders dislike Mbappe calling Mao a dictator, companies must follow suit, either by coercion or simply by knowing what happens if they defy their Communist leaders.
Mbappe said nothing wrong. Under the rule of Mao Zedong from 1949-1976, as many as 45 million to 60 million people were killed, falling just short of the total death toll of World War II, but in this instance, it was one man slaughtering the Chinese people. Calling Mao a dictator doesn’t even begin to describe the atrocity and horror he unleashed on China, but Communists will tolerate no criticism, no truth-telling. The Tiananmen Square Massacre cannot be talked about openly in China; references to the massacre are scrubbed from textbooks. If officials must mention it, it is called the “correct decision.” On TikTok, references to the massacre or an independent Tibet are banned and promptly removed.
When Chairman Xi Jinping met with President Donald Trump in the United States in September of this year, Xi witnessed that Americans have no such restriction or repression on their opinions. Protesters supporting Taiwan and Tibet filled the streets to voice their displeasure with the CCP’s oppression and human rights abuses. Those protesters did the right thing — the CCP and Xi should be reminded that the rest of the world does not abide by the CCP’s revisionist history. The textbooks of the West will tell the history of the defeat of communism in the Soviet Union and the bloodshed and starvation communism unleashed on the Chinese people.
Mbappe should not have apologized for calling Mao a dictator; it’s a historical fact. But money talks — or rather silences, as the Uyghurs in CCP “re-education camps” that have had their money frozen or confiscated could tell you. And as we’ve seen in the NBA, athletes and organizations tend to bow to CCP money, determined not to lose their profit.
America and the rest of the West will need to decide whether we will allow ourselves to kowtow to the CCP’s demands of repression and keep quiet when speaking up might offend Xi and his party. France has not given much reason to believe that it is willing to stand against the CCP’s bullying. Mbappe is just a symptom of a much larger problem.
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In his apology, Mbappe affirmed he “had deep respect for the Chinese people and their history.” A deep respect for the Chinese people comes with an acknowledgment of their history of persecution and oppression, of the 60 million who are dead because of Mao, and that the Chinese people still live under repression and restriction from the Chinese Communist Party.
The West doesn’t need to apologize for facts — it needs to speak the truth about history.