Clint Lamb
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John Cena found himself in hot water with China recently after calling Taiwan a country during an interview promoting Fast & Furious 9, which was released internationally on May 19. Apparently, Cena said on Taiwanese TV that it would be the first country to watch the film.
The statement was factual, but let’s just say that recognition of Taiwan didn’t go over well in China. The WWE superstar then issued an apology on social media Monday.
John Cena apologized in Chinese on Sina Weibo after calling Taiwan a country during an interview promoting Fast & Furious 9 pic.twitter.com/dzRKIYgEzL
— Joe Yizhou Xu (@JoeXu) May 24, 2021
If you can’t understand that, don’t sweat it because I can’t either. I took three years of Latin in high school for some unknown reason, and I don’t think I could regurgitate a single word of it. So that’s where I’m at with foreign languages.
Fortunately for all the people who don’t know Chinese, the South China Morning Post was willing to translate Cena’s apology.
“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. Everyone was asking me if I could use Chinese – [movie] staff gave me a lot of information, so there was a lot of interviews and information,” said Cena, who started learning Mandarin to help his wrestling promotion’s integration in China.
“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 apologise, I apologise, I’m very sorry. You must understand that I really love, really respect China and the Chinese people. My apologies. See you.”
Man, talk about cowering. Read that second paragraph again.
People are acting like Cena had an agenda behind the comment. It looked accidental. Heck, I’m pretty sure I accidently referred to Ontario as a city in a piece a couple months ago. Man, am I sure glad the Canadian government didn’t come gunning for me.
But whether it was accidental or intentional, Cena is right. Taiwan is in fact a country.
As for the comments to Cena’s apology, the South China Morning Post had a few interesting ones of note. Check some of these out:
“Please say in Chinese that Taiwan is part of China. Otherwise, we won’t accept it.”
“Then you should say Taiwan is China’s! What you have said in the video is nonsense. You can’t take benefits from China, but in the meantime, do things to harm China’s interests.”
“I like you. I think you truly love China. Don’t talk carelessly again about China’s territory and sovereignty.”
Like I said, this is clearly going over well.
Fast & Furious 9 will hit the big screens in the United States on June 25.
So embarrassing to watch Jon Cena humiliate himself, and like all apologies of this genre, it’s not enough. He “loves” China and the people of China, but apparently doesn’t give a crap about the people of Taiwan. Jon’s a good dude that has done a lot for Make a Wish et al, but the bowing down to China stuff has got to stop. If you need China to make FF9 profitable, then maybe the movie series has run its course.
I always laugh at companies like Apple who state that “hate has no place on our platform”. That’s not true if the hate tosses you a few billion dollars. If you got a few billion, your hate is very welcome.
John is a “good dude”…while he begs communist to let him throw Taiwanese people into the meat grinder. No, he’s a anything for money tur?
Never thought I would see Cena and the NBA walking hand in hand. Lost a fan here JC, not that you care you have billions more in communist china.
sphincter says what?
So John Cena wants to be clear about how much he loves and respects China, and how deeply he hates the mere existence of the Taiwanese people. Next, he plans to relate better to Palestinians on Israel.
Talk about sensitive. And talk about bowing to that sensitivity. Remember before the Beijing Olympics when the Spanish Basketball team made that racist face in a picture? The Chinese didn’t bat an eye. The American media went crazy but the Chinese were like, “we’re not offended, get over it.” Man, have they got soft since then.
Here’s an article on it: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/olympic-teams-slant-eyes-ad-draws-ire/
I will say this, he’s in the right industry, WWE and movies, fake ass industry for fake ass turds.
Coward. The money is always more important than the principle. Sports superstars, actors, CEOs are all cowards and blindingly hypocritical.
Good God! This Stuff has to STOP!
A simple “I love and respect All People of All Nations” should be sufficient.
If that’s not good enough for the Chinese War Lords, then walk away with your dignity and a few fewer dollars.
Just checked with Google and Taiwan is still a country. Google is so intolerant.
Are there not any strong men with some character than can quit apologizing for speaking the truth the chicoms are a brutal oppressive regime that routinely locks up and excutes its own people for just speaking out I mean my god Cena what the hell is the matter with your weak ass smfh
I had no idea Cena was
1) fluent in Chinese
2) such a bitch
The more you know.
China finally did what no one in WWE could do: turned Cena heel. (and a little bitch to boot)
Pussy.
Taiwan – officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a COUNTRY in East Asia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiwan
Wow, F that guy.
Wow, when you get Keith Olbermann and Tom Cotton to agree on something then you know you screwed up royally!
John Cena/LeBron James…two peas in a pod