Wrestling superstar John Cena apologized to the People’s Republic of China and its roughly 1.5 billion inhabitants last week, adding his name to a long list of celebrities and companies asking the communist government for forgiveness — presumably due to fear of financial repercussions.
“I made a mistake,” Cena told China after referring to Taiwan as an independent country while promoting his latest film, a claim that China has long disputed. “Now I have to say one thing, which is very, very, very important: I love and respect China and Chinese people.”
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Over the past several years, dozens of companies have challenged China’s sovereignty, resulting in apologies being issued and products being pulled from shelves.
The luxury fashion brand Versace asked China for forgiveness in 2019 after the company produced shirts that suggested Hong Kong and Macao were autonomous regions, which China disputes.
https://twitter.com/PDChina/status/1160532393784217600?s=20
“Never have I wanted to disrespect China’s National Sovereignty, and this is why I wanted to personally apologize for such inaccuracy and for any distress that it might have caused,” Donatella Versace, the company’s chief creative officer, posted on Instagram at the time.
Coach and Givenchy, also luxury brands, drew criticism from China around the same time for printing T-shirts recognizing Macao and Hong Kong as separate entities from China. Both companies apologized for the shirts after millions of angry Chinese social media users called for boycotts.
Chinese shoppers are responsible for at least a third of luxury brand sales worldwide and represent two-thirds of the luxury industry’s growth, according to the management consulting firm Bain & Company.
Several other luxury and fashion brands have apologized to China for recognizing Hong Kong, Macao, or Taiwan as independent, including Swarovski, Dior, Calvin Klein, Tiffany and Co., and Zara.
Luxury automobile company Mercedes Benz also ended up on China’s bad side as a result of a post on the company’s Instagram page that quoted the Dalai Lama, who China views as a separatist and a traitor.
Mercedes deleted and apologized for the post, saying, “We will promptly take steps to deepen our understanding of Chinese culture and values, our international staff included, to help standardize our actions to ensure this sort of issue doesn’t happen again.”
In 2017, Mercedes’s European competitor Audi also apologized to China after the “serious mistake” of using an “inaccurate” map of the country that did not include Taiwan or Tibet.
The hospitality industry has not been immune to backlash from China, as evidenced by a 2017 apology from the Marriott hotel chain for offending the communist regime in a customer survey. Additionally, the next year, Marriott fired an employee for “liking” a social media post from a pro-Tibetan independence organization.
Those tracking the airline industry have undoubtedly noticed several instances of companies kowtowing to the Chinese government over the last few years, as well.
“It was an inadvertent error with no business or political intention, and we apologize deeply for the mistake. As one of our most important markets, we are fully committed to China and to our Chinese customers,” Delta Airlines said in a 2018 statement after listing Tibet and Taiwan as separate countries on its website.
After being warned by the Chinese government, Australia-based Qantas airlines amended its website and apologized in 2018 after listing Taiwan and Hong Kong as countries.
Even McDonald’s, one of the largest corporations on earth with almost 40,000 locations worldwide, was forced to bend the knee to China in 2019 after running an ad that suggested Taiwan was an independent country.
The sports world recently saw one of its most prominent global stars back down to China when Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James accused an NBA executive of being “misinformed” after he voiced support for Hong Kong’s independence.
Hollywood, as Cena recently exemplified, has routinely acquiesced to China, which has developed an increasingly powerful hold on the American movie industry.
Movie studios routinely censor their films in order to appease the Chinese government, including the recent sequel to Top Gun that omitted a Taiwanese flag on Tom Cruise’s jacket.
“It’s just one more example of how the China lobby in American society continues to try to lobby for China’s interests against America’s interests,” Sen. Tom Cotton said about Cena’s apology and China’s overall influence on movies. “You know, Hollywood is deep in China’s pocket. When was the last time you saw a Chinese bad guy in a movie, unlike, say, the Soviets? That’s because Hollywood wants access to the Chinese market and to Chinese money.”
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“It’s very disappointing,” the Arkansas Republican added.
