U.S. actor and wrestling champ John Cena has had to apologise to Chinese fans after calling Taiwan a country during an interview to promote his latest movie “Fast & Furious 9”.
China currently regards Taiwan as its province, an assertion rejected by most on the self-ruled, democratic island.
The 44-year-old made the inflammatory statement while speaking to Taiwanese television TVBS earlier this month, saying that Taiwan would be the first “country” to see the latest Fast and Furious.
The actor, promptly apologized in mandarin, in a video posted on his account on Weibo, a Twitter-like microblog popular in China adding that he loves and respect china and the chinese people.
However, this was still not enough for many chinese, as one very popular comment under the video read “Please use Mandarin to say Taiwan is part of China. Otherwise we won’t accept the apology.”
The apology also caused a bit of a ruckus in the US. Manager of American news website Boston.com,Matt Karolian, showed his displeasure when he tweeted “Can someone please help John Cena locate his spine, please?”.
Former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo chiming in tweeted, “On your bowing to the Chinese Communist Party… I don’t see you.”
Cena has joined a long list of international celebrities who have incurred the wrath of an increasingly nationalistic Chinese public over their comments about Taiwan, Hong Kong or Xinjiang.
Companies are also not left out, with several airlines and hotels apologising to China in recent years for listing Taiwan as a country on their booking websites.
The movie has been a box office hit in mainland China since its open on May 21, with the country accounting for $135 million of the movie’s $162 million in revenue, according to U.S. publication Variety.
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