During the Cultural Revolution, Chinese dictator Mao Zedong found a sinister new way to deal with so-called enemies of the state. Ordinary members of the public suspected of disloyalty towards the Communist regime were rounded up and forced to endure a public humiliation known as a ‘struggle session’. Many of those subjected to struggle sessions were murdered or driven to suicide, while others got away with grovelling apologies and re-education. One wonders if any of this might be ringing a bell for French football star, Kylian Mbappé, right about now.

The Real Madrid striker was speaking recently on a French talkshow called The Bridge. Asked about internet memes in which he has been depicted as famous dictators (a joke about his dominance over world football), Mbappé said that the one that made him ‘laugh the most’ was ‘a video of a guy, I think it’s a Chinese dictator’. He was referring to Mao Zedong, the founder of the People’s Republic of China and its leader from 1949 to 1976.

The response of the Chinese state to this harmless gag would make Mao proud. China’s public broadcaster, CCTV, has ended all broadcasts of La Liga matches and removed all content featuring Mbappé. His jerseys have been removed from the flagship Adidas store in Beijing. Mengniu, China’s biggest dairy producer, has cancelled its sponsorship deal with Mbappé. It has a ‘zero-tolerance policy towards any words or actions that hurt the feelings of the Chinese people’, it said. Dongpeng, a Chinese drinks manufacturer on whose bottles Mbappé’s face appears, has done the same.

Adopting the tones of an imperious schoolmaster, Lin Jian, a spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry, said that ‘words and deeds that hurt the feelings of the Chinese people will naturally be met with opposition from all sectors of Chinese society’.

Following the public denunciations, Mbappé has fulfilled his role in this weird, dystopian saga by rowing back his ‘ill-judged’ comments. ‘I now understand that it hurt many people in China and in Chinese communities around the world’, he said. ‘I apologise to everyone my words have upset.’

Surely that would be enough to appease the ‘hurt feelings’ of the Chinese state? Apparently not. La Liga, the Spanish football league, has also felt the need to apologise. Apparently, it ‘deeply regrets the offence’ caused by Mbappé referring to Mao as a dictator. Javier Tebas, the president of La Liga, saw fit to express his ‘deep regret’ and reiterated the league’s ‘commitment to China, its people and its institutions’.

This kowtowing to the Chinese Communist Party is absurd. Mao really was a dreadful, brutal dictator. According to conservative estimates, he was responsible for the deaths of 40million people, the most of whom died from starvation during the Great Leap Forward, a disastrous drive for ‘productivity’ and ‘industrialisation’. By apologising for his remark, Mbappé and La Liga have endorsed one of the central mythologies of the CCP – namely, that Mao was some kind of benevolent and progressive leader.

Of course, there is an obvious rationale behind Mbappé and La Liga’s obsequiousness. China is flush with cash and neither Mbappé nor La Liga wants to bite the hand that feeds them. And they’re far from alone in bowing down before the CCP’s demands. Western governments have done likewise.

The UK offers a prime example. In January, then prime minister Keir Starmer approved China’s ‘mega embassy’ The British media and assorted politicians had long raised well-grounded security fears about China’s new ‘mega embassy’, due to be built on the site of the former Royal Mint in central London. The CCP responded to these by dismissing the claims as ‘malicious slander’. And the same Lin Jian who was recently on Mbappé’s case effectively threatened the British government. Unless the UK ‘immediately fulfil[ed] its obligations and honour[ed] its commitments’, he said ‘the British side shall bear all consequences’. Eventually, this January, Starmer and the UK establishment caved in to the demands and granted the embassy approval.

Beijing can’t be allowed to get its own way every time it stamps its feet. Whether it’s out of money or cowardice, each act of appeasement to the CCP only erodes our own freedoms. If we’re not even free to call a dictator what he is, then the struggle for liberty is already lost.