– The American wrestling super star and actor John Cena on Tuesday apologised for his country's recent film "Fast & Furious Film 9," calling on Taiwan for interviews.
Cena (44 years old) said Taiwan would be the first "country" to watch Fast and Furious at the start of this month in the presence of Taiwanese TVBS.
The claim that most people on the autonomous, democratic island reject is regarded as Taiwan as their province by China.
Cena joins a long list of international celebrities who have drawn the ire of an increasingly nationalistic Chinese public for remarks about Taiwan, Hong Kong, or Xinjiang.
“I made one blunder. “I am deeply sorry for this error,” Cena said in Mandarin in a video posted on his Weibo account, a Twitter-like microblog popular in China.
“I have to say something very important right now – I love and respect China and the Chinese people,” he said, without mentioning Taiwan.
Many mainland Chinese netizens felt that the apology was insufficient.
“Please say Taiwan is a part of China in Mandarin. Otherwise, we will not accept the apology,” read one of the comments on Cena's apology video that received the most "likes."
Some Western netizens were also unimpressed with the apology.
“Could someone please assist John Cena in locating his spine?” On Twitter, Matt Karolian, the manager of the American news website Boston.com, wrote:
Since its release on May 21, the film has been a box office success in mainland China.
According to U.S. entertainment daily Variety, China accounted for $135 million of the movie's $162 million in revenue over the weekend.
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