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We were
just discussing coerced videos and Hollywood s complicity in China s myriad human rights abuses, weren t we? Days after unsurprising reports emerged that filmed messages from Uighurs denying persecution at the hands of the Chinese Communist Party were not offered voluntarily, an American celebrity has made a propaganda video of his own. Former professional wrestling star and actor John Cena recorded a clip in Mandarin profusely apologizing for the grave error of referring to Taiwan as a country, a reality that Beijing refuses to accept. Taiwan is a sovereign democracy. Cena did so while promoting his new movie, which he clearly hopes will be a box office hit in China, so he prostrated himself before the regime s authoritarians and a nationalistic audience in order to salvage his reputation as a bankable star. Here s the financially-motivated hostage video:
U.S. actor and former World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. champion John Cena apologized for describing Taiwan as a country in a promotional video for his latest movie, saying sorry in Mandarin after the comments triggered a backlash in China.
Cena made the apology in a clip posted Tuesday on his official Weibo account, a Chinese social media platform like Twitter. He had earlier this month indicated that Taiwan was a country in a video promoting his film “Fast & Furious 9,” according to China’s state-run Global Times newspaper.
“I made a mistake. I must say now that, very very very importantly, I love and respect China and Chinese people,” Cena said in Chinese in the video, without elaborating further.