John Cena is making headlines this week as he released an apology video on Twitter to China in perfect Mandarin.
Cena was promoting the new Fast and Furious movie (yes they are still making those) in Taiwan. During the interview he said Taiwan would be the first country to see F9.
The reason his comment blew up is because China considers Taiwan to be a self-ruled democratic island and a province that is part of China. Cena calling Taiwan a “country” is considered offensive to the Chinese.
In order to save face and more importantly the movie’s biggest international market, Cena apologized.
The pro-wrestler posted the video originally to the Chinese social media site Weibo, speaking in Mandarin, which Cena is fluent in. It translates:
“Hi China, I’m John Cena. I’m in the middle of ‘Fast and Furious 9’ promotions. I’m doing a lot of interviews. I made a mistake in one of my interviews. I made one mistake. I have to say something very, very, very important now. I love and respect China and Chinese people. I’m very, very sorry about my mistake. I apologize, I apologize, I’m very sorry. You must understand that I really love, really respect China and the Chinese people. My apologies. See you.”
Now Cena is facing backlash from Americans for apologizing to the Communist country. Tony Katz says the problem is bigger than that, it’s an issue with Hollywood and their greedy relationship with the Chinese market. Katz says Cena was most likely attempting to protect the hundreds of crew members whose jobs with the franchise would be in jeopardy.
This is a story of Hollywood, not John Cena. For John Cena to say ‘I’m not apologizing’ puts the entire studio and all of those people at risk…The real question here is how desperate are the studios for that sweet, sweet commie cash?
https://omny.fm/shows/tony-katz-and-the-morning-news/john-cena-apologizes-to-china
