Actor and wrestler John Cena found himself in the firing line with China after he addressed Taiwan as a country while promoting his latest actioner Fast and Furious 9. The matter stirred such a big controversy that Cena had to post a video, apologising to China for the ‘mistake.’In what seems to be fluent Mandarin, John Cena asks for forgiveness from the Chinese people. “I made one mistake, I must say right now, very important, I love and respect Chinese people. I am very sorry for my mistake. I am so sorry, I apologise,” BBC quoted the actor and wrestling champion as saying. While speaking to Taiwanese broadcaster TBVS, Cena had mentioned how Taiwan would be the first ‘country’ that would be able to watch his latest action flick F9. The video created quite the uproar in the Chinese community as China considers Taiwan to be a part of Mainland China.
Taiwan has not been ruled by China since it split with the Chinese mainland in 1949 after a civil war. However, China has continued to claim that Taiwan is its own territory and terms it ‘breakaway province’ and has even ramped up military activity near the island. The mainland has refrained from maintaining any official contacts with Taiwan and has attempted to keep the island diplomatically isolated. The movie was expected to release on May 18 in Taiwan but was postponed following a surge in Covid-19 cases.F9 has been leading China’s box office since Monday, the fourth day of its release. “Featuring a new adventure with the leading characters as high-performance drivers, the movie raked in 67 million yuan (about $10.45 million) on Monday, accounting for nearly 72% of the total daily box office sales,” the official news agency Xinhua reported. The film was officially released on the Chinese mainland on May 21. It has earned 990 million yuan ($155 million) as of Tuesday evening.