The main thing is to be outraged! Real Madrid and La Liga kowtow to China – and call it business
A harmless joke about himself, artificially inflated outrage and an entire league kowtowing to an authoritarian regime: the China vs. Kylian Mbappe affair is a lesson in our culture of outrage – and should also serve as a warning to Bayern Munich. A commentary.
The China vs Kylian Mbappe affair began with a question and has spiralled out of control. Before a podcast recording began, Mbappe answered a few routine social media questions while having his make-up done. One asked which meme featuring his face had made him laugh the most.
Mbappe has been a walking meme as well as a great striker since the start of his career at AS Monaco. Online, people have mocked his appearance and some of his mannerisms.
People have put Mbappe's head on Ninja Turtle figures because they reckon he looks like Donatello from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. His arms-crossed celebration circulates whenever someone manages a mundane task, such as taking out the rubbish (Mbappe arm cross!). Other memes feature his supposedly dirty laugh and what is purported to be his death stare.
Then there are the Mbappe dictator memes.
They play on the way he sometimes appears a little too authoritarian on the pitch, ordering his team-mates around. Mbappe grew up with these memes, knows them and has often laughed at them in public.
Asked back in March 2026 which meme featuring his face made him laugh the most, he replied with a laugh: "There are lots. The one I laughed at most is this video where my face was put on the body of, I think, a Chinese dictator. I often use it with my friends when we play PlayStation."
Kylian Mbappe was cancelled for laughing at himself
The Chinese regime did not cancel Mbappe and Spain's La Liga because he called a Chinese dictator a dictator half a year ago. That alone would have been bad enough. Instead, Mbappe has sparked something of a diplomatic crisis by laughing at himself. That makes it sadder and more revealing.
Now Mbappe and Real Madrid are apologising to the Chinese people for the superstar's "ill-considered remarks". What for, exactly? Spanish league president Javier Tebas publicly reprimanded Mbappe and went grovelling to the Chinese advertising partners. Once again, one wishes he had more brains and a backbone.
China's response may be over the top even by its own standards. Still, the Mbappe affair tells us less about how authoritarian regimes handle irony and perceived criticism than it might seem. Anyone genuinely surprised probably also believes Chinese internet censorship exists to protect young people.
The Mbappe affair is a lesson in outrage culture
Outrage culture spreads when the original cause stops mattering. All that counts is that someone explains themselves, someone apologises and people get to be outraged.
Mbappe has lost advertising deals worth €6.5 million in this case, while the Spanish league risks losing up to €400 million. Meanwhile, China's leaders are telling their people they have collectively been gravely insulted, without providing any further context. Jokes about the great leader Mao Zedong, even supposed ones, are taboo. The supposed insult came from a footballer laughing at a nasty joke at his own expense.
That is what happens when you get into bed with the wrong people
Forcing Mbappe to apologise for this is grotesque. Real Madrid and, above all, Tebas should be ashamed for going along with it. They are bowing to an authoritarian regime rather than considering what sparked the outrage and how to calm the other side down.
Such is the price of getting into bed with the wrong people. Anyone doing business with authoritarian regimes pays for it eventually, in football as in politics.
Bayern Munich should take note. The German record champions allowed their partnership with Qatar, and later their sponsorship deal with Rwanda, to expire after fan protests. Yet those in charge gave little impression they had understood why fans had protested in the first place.
Money from such partnerships comes with strings attached. Eventually, it is no longer just about sponsorship, but about which images can be published and which statements can be made.
In this country, intellectual lightweights, particularly on the right, are quick to invoke cancel culture whenever someone challenges their simplistic outpourings. Here is what it can actually mean: Real Madrid and La Liga are abandoning their most important player and bowing to pressure from an authoritarian regime.
Enablers of China's propaganda
Real Madrid have done it before. In August 2026, for example, they deleted a social media post mourning the victims of the devastating floods in Nepal and Tibet, without any further explanation. The post simply drew attention to people's suffering after a natural disaster.
Even then, the Chinese leadership apparently saw a political statement. China does not recognise Tibet, and the regime cancels the entire region as far as it can. When a club behaves as Real Madrid have, and they are not alone, it stops being just a business partner and becomes an enabler of its partner's propaganda.
