The long arm of Chinese state censorship has reached into the world of professional football. China Media Group, the state-run broadcaster, has blacked out La Liga matches after Real Madrid star Kylian Mbappé made the mistake of joking about a meme featuring his face superimposed on a likeness of the late Chinese dictator Mao Zedong.
Despite Mbappé issuing a groveling apology for his 'ill-judged' remarks, and both the player and the league bowing to demands for contrition, the regime in Beijing remains unsatisfied.
The blackout continues indefinitely, serving as a reminder that the Chinese Communist Party expects nothing less than total ideological deference from the international community.
This incident mirrors the 2019 retaliation against the NBA, when Beijing pulled games for an entire year after a Houston Rockets executive dared to voice support for pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong.
While the Chinese state media acknowledges the apologies, they continue to weaponize their market access to punish anyone who fails to treat their history—including the bloody legacy of Mao’s regime—with the reverence demanded by the Party. Once again, global sports organizations are finding that trying to appease a totalitarian regime is a losing game.
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