Real Madrid apologise to Chinese people for Mbappe’s Mao ‘dictator’ remark

La Liga club Real Madrid ⁠⁠issued an apology on Wednesday ⁠⁠after their French superstar Kylian Mbappe triggered a fierce backlash over his comments referring to the former Chinese leader Mao ⁠⁠Zedong as a “dictator”. After apologies from Mbappe and La Liga failed to quell the negative response in China, La Liga President Javier Tebas set up a crisis unit ⁠⁠and met with Chinese ambassador Yao Jing. The controversy highlighted the risks for athletes and brands in the lucrative Chinese market, where satire about Mao, modern China’s founding leader, who ruled the country from 1949 until his death in 1976, remains a social taboo.