What exactly did Mbappe say? He didn't even name the Chinese dictator, yet the whole internet is furious, no one dares to translate it, CCTV suspends La Liga, Dongpeng and Mengniu line up to terminate contracts, Jinsangzi used Ronaldo's image for four years for free in 2003, companies fear the 'punishment function', and the sacred icons have long become memes!

In a podcast program, when asked about his funniest meme, Mbappe mentioned, "The one where my face is Photoshopped onto someone, who I think is a Chinese dictator." As soon as this statement was made, it sparked anger across the entire Chinese internet, yet no one dared to translate the specific details. CCTV suspended its broadcasts of La Liga matches, and companies like Dongpeng and Mengniu quickly severed ties and canceled their contracts. The article compares how Golden Throat Lozenge used Ronaldo's image for false advertising in 2003 with today's phenomenon of companies rapidly cutting ties over a single Photoshopped image under political pressure, pointing out that companies face a "penalty function"—the faster they cut ties, the smaller their losses. The article also analyzes the reasons why the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)'s anger mobilization fails among the general public, as well as the phenomenon of "disenchantment" when political symbols become memified, arguing that the CCP's censorship and bans actually end up preserving the sacredness of its opponents. Finally, the article points out that while China's economy is facing a downturn, the government spends huge administrative costs over a single Photoshopped image, questioning whether the symbols maintained by the CCP have already lost their legitimacy.

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Observing things as they truly are, refusing CCP cognition. Over the past two days, Mbappe has gone viral beyond the sports world. I usually watch some football myself, though I'm not overly fanatic about it. Let's first talk about what he actually said. Mbappe went on the podcast hosted by his Real Madrid teammate Tchouaméni—a show called *The Bridge*. The host asked him, "Hey, people have made a lot of memes out of you online, which one is the funniest?" It was just a very, very normal chat show. Mbappe said the funniest one was the one where his face was photoshopped onto someone else. He added, "I think he is a Chinese dictator. I often send it to my friends when playing PlayStation." Just this one sentence, mind you. Notice that he didn't even say the name; he wasn't even sure who it was. His entire knowledge of the spicy preserved meat [Mao Zedong] amounted to just those two words: "Chinese dictator." Later when I looked into it, this meme didn't even originate from the preserved meat himself. How did this meme come about? Back in 2024, a French kebab shop owner named Henni did something: he named one of his dishes after Mbappe's haircut style, and Mbappe turned around and sued him. Henni then fired back with a roast aimed at Mbappe, saying that he had turned his own name into a dictatorial regime. French football fans heard this and thought, "Wow, that's spot on!" When this guy was at Paris Saint-Germain, wasn't he acting like an absolute supreme ruler? Thus, in 2024, a Reddit user photoshopped Mbappe's face onto the famous portrait of the preserved meat [Mao]. That was the first traceable image. Later, it developed into an entire series, with people going wild with the meme, eventually extending it to Stalin and Kim Jong Un. All sorts of big fur hats and military uniforms. This photoshopped picture of the preserved meat had actually been circulating in the Chinese football fan circle for nearly two years without any issue. What's hilarious is that on October 16th, there was even an article on Toutiao explaining how this "dictator Mbappe" meme became popular, noting that its origin was surprisingly a kebab shop. This meme had been circulating publicly in mainland China for over two years. Why is the reflex arc for the "feelings of the Chinese people" in the CCP's mouth so long? They watched it for two years, let it circulate for two years, and then suddenly woke up one day from a dream screaming, "Holy shit, Mbappe hurt my feelings!" Just think about how absurd that is.

Then comes what I think is the funnest part of this whole incident: the entire internet started condemning him, but not a single person dared to say what he actually said. Take the platform Dongqiudi, for example. Normally, when players hurl profanities at each other on the pitch, this platform dares to translate them word-for-word. This time, they issued a statement saying: "Since his comments involve harm to China and the Chinese people, we cannot translate them." Yeah, "cannot translate." Guangming Daily, China News Service, Global Times—all of them were condemning the incident, but not a single one repeated what he actually said. Because if they repeated it, they would have to put "Chinese dictator" and the preserved meat [Mao] in the same sentence. The English edition of Global Times was quite clever though, writing a sentence saying that many Chinese people preferred not to repeat it. So, on October 27th, a spectacle appeared on the Chinese internet: anger filled every post, but the object of that anger was a sentence that could not be spoken out loud. Let's look at what talented Chinese netizens posted. One post read: "I don't watch football, but I woke up this morning only knowing Mbappe said something inappropriate, without knowing what he actually said. I asked Doubao [an AI], but it wouldn't say either." And here comes the funniest part: Sina Weibo's official AI auto-reply bot—what's it called, Comment Robert or something?—it has nearly two million followers. On a post asking "What did Mbappe do? [question mark] What he said was wrong [question mark]", this Robert bot actually generated a voice reply. Robert was remarkably honest, saying: "He just told the truth, that's all. Some people just don't like to hear it." The only entity across all platforms that spoke the truth was the CCP's own official AI bot! Seriously, watching this almost made me snort out loud with laughter. When it comes to pulling off surreal absurdities, the CCP could literally be Picasso's master.

Alright, let's take a look at the assembly-line disassociation on the corporate side. First of all, the sequence alone is truly worth watching, because from Mr. Kevin Tsai all the way to Mbappé, it is virtually a textbook template operation. On the evening of the 26th, CCAV made the first move, pulling all matches related to La Liga and Mbappé, and pulling the ads as well. Mind you, they didn't just suspend Mbappé; they suspended the entire La Liga broadcast. And just like that, tens of millions of La Liga fans in China were dragged down as collateral damage. By the morning of the 27th, Dongpeng Beverage and its hydration drink brand, Bushuila, announced the complete termination of their partnership. That contract had only just been signed on April 20 of this year. During the World Cup, the streets were covered with slogans like "I am Mbappé, Bushuila." Dongpeng Beverage's stock price then plummeted by over 4% intraday. By 11 a.m., Mengniu promptly followed suit. Mengniu's deal with Mbappé had seemingly been signed years ago—if I recall correctly, around 2020 or 2021, spanning through his World Cup run. Back then, Mengniu even had Mbappé learn a phrase in Chinese, where he looked awkwardly into the camera and stumbled out: "Born to be strong." Remember that nonsense? Everyone remembers that, right? At noon, Xiaohongshu (RedNote) also came out to state its stance, claiming their partnership with Mbappé had already ended on December 31, 2024, and that they would remove promotional materials. In the afternoon, they banned Mbappé's account outright. Your contract expired two years ago, yet you still have to step up and make a declaration—what do you call this? Even the exes have to come out and draw a line. Then in the afternoon, there was a Ministry of Foreign Affairs press briefing. AFP asked the question and Guo Jiakun answered, acting as if it were all genuine. Guo Jiakun shamelessly rambled on with the same old clichés, claiming that words and deeds hurting the feelings of the Chinese people would naturally face a joint boycott from all sectors of Chinese society. When I watched this part, what was I thinking? I was thinking: does any sector of Chinese society even know what Mbappé said? How the fuck did it hurt your feelings! I am genuinely curious: what on earth are the feelings of the Chinese people—as defined by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)—made of? How can they get hurt every single day? The most ridiculous part is the word "naturally" coming out of Guo Jiakun's mouth. That wasn't "natural" at all; it was as synchronized as clocking in for a shift! Dongpeng in the morning, Mengniu at noon, Xiaohongshu at noon. You see, the emotions of the Chinese people are more punctual than fucking work shifts! Isn't that a bit too "natural"? Meanwhile, Guangming Daily was kissing ass, posting on Douyin about how "no insult to China's deceased great leader shall be tolerated," and China News Service was hurling abuse, calling out "Mbappé, bah!" By 7:30 in the evening, Mbappé issued an apology in French, Chinese, and English. I bet he was completely dumbfounded inside, wondering: "What did I even say? Why is everyone acting like this?" He might genuinely have thought that this statement hurt the feelings of the Chinese people, but in reality, what he hurt were the feelings of the CCP. What did he say? He said his remarks were inappropriate, and that he holds deep respect for the Chinese people and their history. Twenty minutes later, Chinese football jumped in to posture. When it comes to playing football, they suck, but when it comes to posing, they're right on top of it. They claimed they lodged solemn representations with Real Madrid at the earliest moment, demanding a formal public apology from both the player and the club. CCAV's response was: "We will judge him by his deeds, not just his words, and we hope he repents thoroughly." The fucking guy hasn't played there for two years, and you're telling him to repent thoroughly! There are two minor supporting roles here that I must mention. One is the Real Madrid Tieba forum on Baidu, which has 4.44 million followers. They posted a pinned statement declaring that, effective immediately, the forum will neither praise nor defend Mbappé. Even a simple forum board has to issue a declaration! Then Fan Zhendong unfollowed Mbappé, which also trended on social media. The most hilarious thing is that the national table tennis team also came out to take a stand. What the fuck does any of this have to do with you people?

But through this series of facts, we get to know one thing: how tightly the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is pulling this political string right now. And have you all noticed one thing? The statements from these companies are all cast from the exact same mold—things like "resolutely oppose," "zero tolerance," "terminated with immediate effect." It’s so fucking natural that it’s like filling in the blanks. Not a single company asked consumers if they were actually angry, not a single one calculated how much it would cost in breach of contract penalties, and not a single one verified what he actually said. It’s the exact same logic as wiping your ass in the toilet. People think their butt is clean not because it’s actually clean, but simply because what? Because the color has become acceptable. The companies themselves are not solving the problem either; they are just wiping, and the standard is to wipe until it matches the color of CCTV—then it becomes acceptable. As for whether it’s actually clean or not, who fucking cares? To put it plainly, the market had nothing to do with this whole thing from start to finish. If you say consumers are angry, consumers would first have to know what he actually said, wouldn't they? Up until the evening of the 26th when CCTV stopped broadcasting, not a single platform inside the Great Firewall had translated that sentence. An anger where they don't even let you know the offensive content itself—that's not anger; that's just an order. If you say terminating contracts is the optimal business choice for consumer sentiment, then Dongpeng’s stock price shouldn't have fallen! Yet the market priced it in as a loss. Man, contracts, promotional materials, advertising placements across the entire World Cup cycle—all down the drain. This is pure cost. Even Xiaohongshu’s contract had fucking expired two years ago and it had zero commercial exposure left, yet it still had to take a stance. Therefore, the variable driving it was clearly not business. What’s even more ridiculous? Baidu Tieba didn't even have a contract with Fan Zhendong; Tieba’s connection with Fan Zhendong was merely through Mbappé himself. Why did companies have to make a statement so rapidly? Because what companies were facing is called a penalty function. If you sever ties late, man, the CCP slaps a label on you, hits you with regulatory measures, and then lets a broke, desperate tax authority audit you. No one can survive that combo nowadays, because those consequences have no ceiling. If you sever ties quickly, man, the loss is just a few tens of millions in contracts—it has a ceiling. So the entire function interval is bounded on the left and unbounded on the right. Thus, there is only one optimal solution left for enterprises: severing ties as cleanly and quickly as possible. The most fucking awesome part of a penalty function lies right here—it doesn't need to be executed; it only needs to be expected.

Let me talk to you about something that forms the sharpest contrast to this whole Kylian Mbappé affair. Now, let's turn the clock back to 2003 and see what the state of Chinese enterprises was like at that time. Right in the summer of 2003, Real Madrid came to China to play a commercial match, and the most popular player at the time was undoubtedly Ronaldo. He had just won the 2002 World Cup and was named FIFA World Player of the Year for the third time. Nike's endorsement fee for him started at eight figures in USD. So who is our protagonist? Well, there was an enterprise in Liuzhou, Guangxi, that made throat lozenges called Golden Throat. The boss of Golden Throat was truly wild, which is why I really admire women from Guangxi. The boss was named Jiang Peizhen, and this older sister really had some wild methods. Wanting Ronaldo to be her endorser? Even Nike had to pay an eight-figure USD endorsement fee, so there was definitely no way she could afford that. Therefore, she entrusted an intermediary to approach Ronaldo's team. What did they say? They said there was an entrepreneur who liked him very much and wanted to invite him to dinner, and the purpose was just to take a few group photos and give him 300,000 USD. When Ronaldo heard 300,000 USD for a meal, of course he had to go! The restaurant was at the Tea Banquet Club in Beijing. Then, Jiang Peizhen measured his size three months in advance, spent over 700 yuan to custom-make a yellow jersey printed with a Golden Throat lozenge logo. The moment Ronaldo walked in, he was immediately grabbed by this plump, bold woman who stood on tiptoes to pat his head, calling him a good boy. Taking advantage of the moment when he was still a bit confused, she immediately tricked Ronaldo by having him put on that jersey, shoved a box of throat lozenges printed with Professor Wang's portrait into his hand, and then coaxed him into posing for a shooting stance while five cameras recorded the whole thing on-site. Big Sister Jiang Peizhen said that these materials were for domestic propaganda. And then, just a few months later, dark clouds rolled across televisions all over China. Whenever you turned on the TV, there was Ronaldo wearing that yellow jersey, holding up that throat lozenge, and grinning foolishly. This almost became a childhood trauma for our generation. The audio went: Protect your throat, please use Golden Throat Lozenges. Everyone still remembers this thing, right? And it was broadcast on CCTV, local stations broadcast it too, for over four full years. Later, Ronaldo saw this commercial from a friend and was completely dumbfounded, saying, "I didn't know about this, I never signed this endorsement." He then looked for a lawyer to sue, but cross-border litigation was too troublesome, so it didn't go through. The ending of this company is also quite interesting. In 2016, they signed an 80 million variety show advertising contract with Star China Media, but after it aired, they claimed the ratings didn't meet the standard and refused to pay the remaining balance. By 2019, the final judgment of the Shanghai Higher People's Court was that she had to pay 51.67 million, but this older sister was simply fierce and just refused to pay. Then in 2021, the company was delisted. The entire story chain is actually the same as the story chain of China's economic development: it begins with IOUs and ends with defaulting on debts. Well, that can also be considered a beginning and an end.

Why are we putting these two Real Madrid stars, separated by more than two decades, together today? Because this comparison is simply a microcosm of two different social atmospheres and two economic forms. Let's look at these two things together. Back in 2003, whether a Chinese enterprise was playing rogue or pulling shady tricks, at least they had an expansionist mindset. They still remembered spending 300,000 dollars plus a jersey worth a little over 700 yuan to freeload on over four years of advertising from the World Player of the Year. They weren't afraid of the star's lawyers, transnational lawsuits, or public opinion; the concept of politics didn't even cross their minds. At the time, the CCP's CCTV had no interest in censoring this unidentified advertisement whatsoever; its sole purpose was to sell goods. But fast forward to a Chinese enterprise in 2026, facing a star from the same club with whom they signed a formal contract using real money, they dare not even calculate the cost of breach of contract in front of a Photoshopped image that wasn't even made by that person. Twenty-three years have passed, and what has changed is not the courage of the entrepreneurs, but the high-voltage wire hanging over their heads. In 2003, the goal of Chinese society as a whole was very clear: enterprises wanted sales, ordinary people wanted to watch Ronaldo, and the CCP earned advertising fees plus taxes. A single meal could satisfy the goals of all three parties. Ever since this Western European fucking idiot came to power, everyone can see how the severe environment has crushed the enterprising spirit of the entire society, right? Someone says some crazy nonsense, attends some crazy event, facing an image that neither the Chinese people nor Mbappé even knows about—still crazy. So in this year's severe environment, we see a very, very amusing scene: the holy symbol maintained by the CCP really cannot be touched by anyone. In fact, the reason is very simple, because its legitimacy has been exhausted, right? It belongs to a normal emergency response. Enterprises, under this political environment compounded by the Chinese government having gone broke and crazy, were already walking on eggshells; right at the first touch, just to avoid getting themselves into trouble, they hurriedly chose to cut ties and stop losses. And the Chinese public is actually the most miserable—dammit, people don't even know what was said, yet you make me hate them. We can also discover one thing: these three lines are parallel and never intersect. The CCP is manufacturing tension there; enterprises are performing loyalty to prevent losses from expanding; while the common people are cracking melon seeds on the sidelines. The people know the enterprises are acting; the enterprises know the people know; the CCP knows. Everyone knows. But everyone has to play their part and finish acting out this play. Let's think about another question: why did this wave of angry mobilization by the CCP fail among the common people? I think there is a very, very simple issue here. The fact that you can mobilize state power to censor a person already proves in itself that this is a totalitarian society. Coupled with the fact that the CCP was now so cowardly it didn't even dare to pull out the symbol itself, the CCP directly turned this mobilization into what kind of thing? It became a blind-box-style anger performance without any actual objects, and then within a few hours, sure enough, the comment section turned into a massive Soviet joke scene. I saw a super funny reply—that mouth is truly on par with my own level of being owed a beating. A netizen posted asking: I am already prepared and ready to be angry; can someone first tell me which direction I should be gnashing my teeth in? Well, a highly upvoted reply said this: Don't ask around; if you ask, it's unspeakable. Just cover your eyes and exhale along with everyone else, and you're done. Someone else raised a soul-searching question, saying: Mbappé didn't even mention a name, he only said 'Chinese dictator,' how on earth did you guys accurately identify yourselves in a single second? Who on earth is the one insulting here? There were even more savage netizens who gave a direct summary. What did they say? They said that when watching Harry Potter before, they thought the one-who-must-not-be-named was fantasy literature, but watching that statement about understanding ball today made them realize it was documentary literature. Anyway, just watch the show, everyone. Over the past two years, I've increasingly grown to love looking at these intense comment sections. Let's go a layer deeper: the very moment a symbol is turned into a meme, it has already been disenchanted. That portrait was already bundled with Stalin and Kim Jong-un two years ago; it has long become a satirical template where netizens casually scribble faces on the dictator. Chinese fans had been using it as material for two years without ever feeling it was political, but then the CCP—fucking hell—suddenly blew up. True sacred things do not need to rely on suspending the broadcast of a league match to defend them; the intensity of censorship is inversely proportional to the true sacredness of a symbol. Just read the Bible and you'll know: punishment only fulfills an opponent's sacredness. Back then, when the Romans nailed Jesus to the cross, it fulfilled Christ, not the majesty of the Roman governor. No divinity has ever been conferred by gagging others and handing down guilty verdicts. The result? The result is that the more this virtue is maintained, the fewer people believe in it, and thus the more they have to rely on this punishment to prop up that untouchable facade. This can be used to refute...

Refuting the claim that this is a second Cultural Revolution, because the soil for it no longer exists. The fanaticism of the Cultural Revolution required people who were truly fucking idiots, the kind of people who were absolutely stupid. That generation might have truly believed, believing that paying a price for that symbol was an honor. Young people today are raised in meme culture, and their default mode is deconstruction.

A ruthless person, Emperor You Xi, John Lee Ka-chiu, ruthless group, member channel, long-term bonds, yield, duration, basis points, bad debt, loan repayment, corporate-related, sensitive skin, Bilibili, X platform, Li Shufu, Xi Jinping, Xi, Xi's CCP, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), CCP China, Communist Party, Trump, democracy movement, overseas democracy movement, Falun Gong, June Fourth (Tiananmen), Tiananmen, Dalai Lama, Xinjiang, Uyghur, exterminate the CCP, propaganda, Russian daddy, Zhang Youxia, Cai Qi, Ding Xuexiang, Li Qiang, Wang Huning, Zhao Leji, Li Xi, He Weidong, Miao Hua, Liu Zhenli, Shi Taifeng, Huang Kunming, Chen Min'er, Jimmy Lai, Trump-Xi summit, Trump-Xi summit, forced organ harvesting, practicing Falun Gong. Economically, under a dictator, when CCTV stops broadcasting La Liga, you are punishing your own audience and your own advertising revenue. If a foreign football star can be erased because of an image he didn't even create, what Chinese brand would dare to sign international endorsers in the future? Now let's look at the broader economy. According to the Ministry of Commerce's statistics, the nationwide actual used foreign capital peaked at 1.23 trillion yuan two years ago. Last year it plummeted to 747.6 billion yuan, collapsing directly by 40%. Coming into this year's year-on-year data, it fell another 7% on top of last year's low baseline. Furthermore, recycled Hong Kong capital accounts for more than 70% of this figure—more than half of it is just mainland money transferred abroad and then funneled back. When local fiscal resources are in such a fucking mess, the fiscal deficit is enormous. I've basically calculated this with everyone before: when you mobilize state television, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Football Association to crusade against a meme image, every hour of administrative costs comes right out of this deficit. And what is the effect of this crackdown? Probably even more people go looking for that picture. Plus, China has a unique characteristic: this fucking stupid political party gets more aggressive the poorer it becomes, but when it's poor to the point of starving to death, it starts whimpering. Your finances are already in such a fucking terrible state, yet just for a worthless picture, you drag the entire supporting industry chain into losing money along with you. Has your CCP government ever tallied how many people in China rely on Mbappé and the Real Madrid IP for their livelihood? Without overstating it, there are definitely tens of thousands. How did Mbappé end that sentence on the podcast? "He's just good." I think those words are the true verdict on this matter. As for whether the CCP managed to wipe it clean this time, I don't know, but they certainly used a lot of force. As for the color left behind, everyone can see for themselves. Alright, that's all for today's broadcast. If you like the show, please click to launch a floating lantern. If you want to support me, you can join the member channel. The member channel features four in-depth episodes every month. Welcome to join good people walking together. See you next episode.

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