Mao and Mbappé

By Andrew Stuttaford

Wednesday, October 28, 2026

 

With numbers so high, it is impossible to come up with a precise figure, but Mao Tse Tung is widely thought to have been responsible for 40-45 million (non-military) deaths during his rule in China. There are some much higher numbers.

 

Mao’s millenarian ideology, cruelty, and bizarre economics were a human, economic, and political catastrophe for China, holding back its advance for decades.

 

Mao ruled China as dictator, as the center of a truly chilling cult of personality, and in some respects as a living god. He was the Great Teacher, the Great Leader, the Great Commander, and the Great Helmsman. “Führer” was already taken.

 

The regime over which he presided took the communist variant of totalitarianism about as far as it can go. Only his disciple, Pol Pot — an apt pupil — took things further. With a larger population to torment, he would have been responsible for the deaths of even more people than Mao.

 

Kylian Mbappé is the captain of France’s soccer team and a player for the Spanish team Real Madrid. The Bridge is a French online sports show. On a recent episode of the show, Mbappé was asked, Bloomberg reports, which internet meme featuring him had made him laugh the most:

 

He described one involving a video of a man he said he thought was “a Chinese dictator,” with his own face superimposed on the figure. Mbappé said he frequently used the meme with friends while gaming online, but didn’t identify the person in the meme.

 

The “Chinese dictator” was Mao, a Chinese dictator.

 

The Beijing regime was not amused, nor were its lackeys.

 

At this point I must ask you to retweet this meme, lest it offend the Beijing regime. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

 

Meanwhile, via the Financial Times:

 

Major Chinese brands have terminated their sponsorship of French footballer Kylian Mbappé after he referred to former leader Mao Zedong while joking about an online meme. . . .

 

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it had “taken note” of reports about the footballer’s comments. “Words and actions that hurt the feelings of the Chinese people will naturally face unanimous opposition from all sectors of Chinese society,” said ministry spokesperson Lin Jian.

 

“Naturally.”

 

Mbappé, doubtless bullied by various businesses, has now apologized:

 

“I now understand that it hurt many people in China and in Chinese communities around the world,” he said in a statement on social media site X. “I apologise to everyone my words have upset. . . . I have deep respect for the Chinese people and their history, and I am sincerely sorry.”

 

I can understand why he has groveled like this, but if he really had “deep respect for the Chinese people,” he would issue a new statement condemning Mao for the hell to which “the Great Helmsman” subjected them — for decades.

 

The FT provides further background:

 

Online jokes portraying Mbappé as a dictator are understood to date back to a 2024 legal dispute with a kebab shop in Marseille that was using his name. During the 2026 World Cup, he was nicknamed Mobut — a reference to Mobutu Sese Seko, who ruled the Democratic Republic of Congo, then known as Zaire, for more than three decades — by France teammate Ousmane Dembélé.

 

And for more groveling:

 

La Liga, which runs Spain’s top two football divisions, said it deeply regretted the “distress and offence” caused by Mbappé’s remarks. “We understand the harm caused and, on behalf of La Liga, I would like to offer our sincere apologies to the Chinese people,” said Javier Tebas, the league’s president.

 

Tebas should explain what the harm was — and whether it was reasonable to apologize for it. Or is he happy to participate in the glorification of a mass murderer?

 

Other companies have in the past apologized for giving offense to China’s rulers. The FT cites Mercedes apologizing after an Instagram post featured a quote from the Dalai Lama in 2018, and there have been other cases.

 

The Beijing regime, meanwhile, should google “Streisand effect.”

 

And add Beijing’s touchiness to the list of reasons why western companies should, if possible, not do business in China.