After China's escalation against Mbappe: the crisis programme breaks its silence
A new apology: will it calm the Chinese uprising?
"The Bridge", the programme presented by Aurélien Tchouaméni, the Real Madrid player and team-mate of Kylian Mbappé, has issued an official apology following the wave of anger sparked by a video clip of the French forward, after he joked about satirical images linking his face to the Chinese leader Mao Zedong.
The crisis erupted within hours of Mbappé finishing second at the Ballon d'Or ceremony, beaten to the award by a narrow margin of votes behind England's Harry Kane. A behind-the-scenes clip from the programme, filmed last April and published on his social media account on Monday, spread like wildfire.
In the clip, Mbappé jokingly commented on composite images of his face, referring to what he thought was a "Chinese dictator", a nod to Mao Zedong, the founder of the People's Republic of China.
China reacted with fury. The backlash forced the programme to issue an apology via the stories feature on its Instagram account.
An apology after the clip was deleted
According to the "RMC Sport" website, Mbappé's team had actually approved the clip before it went out.
The programme's account still deleted it less than two hours after publishing, once it began circulating on Chinese social media platforms.
Deleting the clip did nothing to stem the fallout. The programme put out an apology statement which read: "We regret that this clip caused offence to people in China and elsewhere around the world."
The statement went on: "We offer our apologies to everyone who felt offended, to Kylian, his partners, and the institutions whose relations with China and the Chinese people may have been affected."
France captain Mbappé had issued his own apology earlier this morning, as the crisis began to cast a shadow over his commercial dealings in the Chinese market.
Commercial losses and a decision from Chinese television
Three Chinese companies tore up their contracts with Mbappé: the beverage company "Dongpeng", the dairy products group "Mengniu", and "Milkground", a cheese manufacturer.
The repercussions didn't stop there. Official Chinese broadcaster CCTV decided to suspend coverage of Spanish league matches and any game Mbappé might feature in, while also pulling the advertisements starring the French star.
