Click to expand Image An advertisement featuring French soccer star Kylian Mbappé in Shanghai, China, June 30, 2026. © 2026 Chinatopix via AP Photo This week a Chinese sports forum unearthed an April 2026 interview with Real Madrid football star Kylian Mbappé jokingly likening himself to a “Chinese dictator” (dictateur chinois). While Mbappé, known for dictating terms on the pitch, did not name names, the broadcaster added art showing him as Chinese Communist Party founder Mao Zedong.Beijing’s reaction was swift. China’s Foreign Ministry claimed the words “hurt the feelings of the Chinese people.” Chinese state broadcaster CCTV blacked out all Spanish football league “La Liga” matches.The Chinese Communist Party under Xi Xinping has low tolerance for anything that could be interpreted as an affront to China, even a comment about Mao made in jest. Javier Tebas, the Spanish football league’s president, issued an apology praising La Liga’s ties with China’s “government departments.”Mao launched China’s Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, disasters that caused massive loss of lives and suffering. In his 2008 book Tombstone: The Untold Story of Mao's Great Famine, journalist Yang Jisheng estimates that at least 36 million people starved to death or died from related abuse during the country’s famine from 1958 to 1961. There were periods when people in China could discuss aspects of these horrors. But, currently, under Xi’s ever-tightening grip, such questions won’t be tolerated.While Mbappé, who swiftly apologized, might lose Chinese sponsors, it’s China’s people who pay the greatest price.In 2021, the Chinese government passed a law punishing those who slander “heroes and martyrs” with up to three years in prison. The authorities later fined a comedian’s company 14.7 million yuan (US$2.1 million) after he made a joke about the People’s Liberation Army. The authorities also recently sentenced artist Gao Zhen to three years in prison under the same law for his provocative Mao sculptures; in one, he depicted Mao kneeling and apologizing to his victims.Beijing’s response to Mbappé’s offhand remark is a reminder that, when it comes to controlling thought and speech, the Chinese Communist Party will always play to win.