Major Chinese brands drop Mbappe over Chairman Mao meme jokes

Two major Chinese sponsors of Kylian Mbappe have dropped their support for the footballer after the Frenchman made jokes about Chairman Mao Zedong. Dairy producer Mengniu and drinks firm Dongpeng have dropped the Ballon d Or runner-up after he reportedly told French TV a meme that makes me laugh the most the one where there s a video of a guy, I think it s a Chinese dictator . The meme in question shows Mbappe s face merged onto an image of Chairman Mao, the founder of Communist China after World War II. He is attributed with making decisions that caused the death of tens of millions of people through famine, and a cultural purge of political opponents. Mbappe has been dubbed “the dictator” by pockets of football fandom given his dominance of the game in recent years. Our company firmly opposes and has a zero-tolerance policy towards any behaviour that offends national sentiments, Dongpeng said. With immediate effect we are terminating all cooperation with Kylian Mbappe