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Wrestler and Actor: John Cena
Photo: NBC / Getty Images
Actor and professional wrestling professional John Cena apologized to his Chinese fans after naming Taiwan as a country in a PR interview.
The statement angered Chinese nationalists.
In a short video he posted on Chinese social media service Weibo, Cena made no explicit mention of Taiwan.
Nor did he go into the details of what he said earlier this month when promoting the movie "Fast & Furious 9" in Taiwanese media.
“I made a mistake in an interview,” he said in the clip in Mandarin with a heavy accent: “Now I have to say something that is very, very, very, very, very important.
I love and respect China and the Chinese people.
I'm really really sorry.
I really apologize for my mistake. "
In his interview with the Taiwanese cable TV channel TVBS, John Cena had also spoken Mandarin.
At the time, he said Taiwan would be the first country to see the film.
This triggered an uproar in China, which sees the democratic state as part of its territory, which can also be brought back by force if necessary.
"Say that Taiwan is part of China"
It is unclear whether Cena's apology served the desired purpose: many of the response comments to his soothing video were negative.
The most likes received a user who wrote: »Please say in Mandarin that Taiwan is part of China.
Otherwise we will not accept the apology. "
On the other hand, John Cena was also sharply criticized for his statements in the USA.
On Twitter, the manager of a Boston news website wrote, "Can someone please help John Cena find his spine?"
Globally operating companies and internationally known celebrities who want to maintain their access to the lucrative Chinese market walk a fine line on many political issues. Nationalistic excitement in social media can certainly result in calls for boycotts against Western films that are supposed to generate large sales in China .
China is putting increasing pressure on foreign companies to express their views on issues that Beijing considers sensitive, such as Taiwan, Hong Kong or Tibet.
Airlines and other companies have been urged to identify Taiwan as part of China on their websites so as not to harm their businesses in the People's Republic.
Chinese state television broadcaster CCTV suspended its contract with the North American basketball league NBA after the Houston Rockets' general manager expressed support for the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong in a quickly deleted tweet.
News that Chinese director Chloe Zhao won an Oscar was censored after old interviews surfaced where she said she grew up in a country where she was surrounded by lies.
"Fast & Furious 9" is one of the first blockbusters on which Hollywood is placing its hopes for a commercial restart after the corona crisis.
The action film, which was originally announced for April, is not due to hit theaters in the US until June 25th.
Last week it was launched in several Asian countries.
The first box office figures seemed to meet Universal Pictures' expectations: In China, since its launch on May 21, it has made the equivalent of $ 137 million, as reported by the industry journal "Variety".
feb / AP / Reuters