EX-WWE CHAMP APOLOGIZES TO CHINA FOR CALLING TAIWAN A COUNTRY

US actor and former World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. (WWE) champion John Cena apologized for describing Taiwan as a country in a promotional video for his latest movie, saying sorry in Mandarin after the comments triggered a backlash in China, Daniela Wei reported for Bloomberg News.

Cena made the apology in a clip posted Tuesday on his official Weibo account, a Chinese social media platform like Twitter. He had earlier this month indicated that Taiwan was a country in a video promoting his film “Fast & Furious 9,” according to China’s state-run mouthpiece Global Times.

“I made a mistake. I must say now that, very very very importantly, I love and respect China and Chinese people,” Cena said in Chinese in the video, without elaborating further.

The apology video triggered further anger on Chinese social media, where users denounced Cena for not stating that Taiwan was part of China. Beijing argues that democratically-run Taiwan is part of its territory, and has in recent years increased diplomatic pressure on the Taipei government and other nations that recognize its legitimacy.

For the record, Beijing never administered Taiwan, which was colonized by Japan, and when the Kuomintang fled China in 1949, the party took over the island, calling it the Republic of China.

Cena is the latest high-profile westerner to come under fire for publicly crossing China’s political lines, amid a boycott of some US and Europe-based brands that had taken a stand against the treatment of Muslim Uyghurs in China’s far west Xinjiang region.

Hennes & Mauritz AB (H&M) faced ire in recent months after a statement it made expressing concern over reports of forced labor in Xinjiang resurfaced. Its Chinese outlets disappeared from Apple and Baidu Maps searches, and some stores in smaller cities were closed by landlords.

The company’s name and products can no longer be found on major Chinese e-commerce platforms including Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s Taobao and Tmall. Online sales of Adidas AG and Nike Inc. also plunged in the country in April after their comments on the Xinjiang issue drew them into the boycott.

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