La Liga goes dark in China over Mbappé comment

China’s state broadcaster declined to broadcast matches from La Liga on Sunday, escalating Beijing’s row with the Spanish soccer league over Kylian Mbappé’s offhanded comments about Mao Zedong. Redolent of previous instances in which Western sports figures stoked controversy, wittingly or otherwise, the star Real Madrid player’s reference to Mao as a “dictator” has led to commercial losses, imperiling “a significant part of La Liga’s business,” a source told El Mundo. Mbappé’s comment has generated significant discussion on the Chinese net despite the censoring of the comment itself, prompting netizens to speak cryptically, Eye on Digital China wrote: “Just look at a renminbi banknote and you’ll understand,” one hinted. La Liga’s president has met with China’s ambassador to Spain to help “find solutions.”— Brendan Ruberry