John Cena's apology over Taiwan row brings focus on Hollywood's strained ties with China

WWE and Fast & Furious 9 star John Cena on May 25 had to apologise after facing the wrath of the Chinese government and the media, with a looming threat to cancel his latest film's screening in the Xi Jinping-ruled nation reportedly for saying Taiwan would be the first country to watch Fast 9- the latest sequel in 'The Fast and the Furious franchise.

It's important to note that China does not consider Taiwan a country and has not allowed official recognition for it in international platforms and representations, although Taiwan has been allowed to govern itself since 1949.

In recent years, social media backlash in China has forced numerous companies and celebrities to moderate and even revise their stance on Taiwan and China's 'One Country, Two Systems' policy - a constitutional principle of the People's Republic of China.

John Cena issues heartfelt apology in Mandarin

In his video statement, the actor was seen saying, 'I have many, many interviews and in one of them I made one mistake, I must say right now...I love and respect Chinese people and that I am very sorry for my mistake. I am so sorry, I apologise,' he had said in his Mandarin.

John Cena's 68-second apology clip was strategically posted on Weibo, a popular Chinese social media platform that acts as an alternative for Twitter in China. John Cena kept repeating 'Sorry' multiple time in the video to his 600,000-odd fan base.

https://twitter.com/JoeXu/status/1396910262494457856

Hollywood's uneasy relationship with China

Due to decades of jingoistic propaganda, patriotic education and state-wide censorship, a large portion of China's population is also increasingly nationalistic. It's even offensive for the Chinese to hear Taiwan referred to as a country and not part of China. And it's precisely this population that Hollywood wants to tame. Out of the $1.2 Billion revenue the Fast and Furious franchise generated worldwide over the years, over $400 million was made in China alone.

John Cena-starrer F9 has already hit the theatres in China and has so far made over $136 million. It is precisely this reason why Universal Pictures-the makers and distributors of the franchise want Cena to apologise to Chinese fans and quickly put this incident behind.

What is the issue between China and Taiwan?

All the way back in the 1920s, a violent civil war broke out and ravaged much of China, it dragged on till 1949, despite a Second World War intervention in the middle of it. However, ultimately, the civil war was won by Mao Zedong who led the Chinese Communist Party and whose party to this day is still in power. Xi Jinping now doubles as CCP's General Secretary and the country's President, effectively making him the single most powerful person in China.

On the other end of the conflict, the losing camp led by Chiang Kai-Shek, who lost the battle, fled to Taiwan along with one million refugees who saw themselves as "Nationals". Taiwan at the time was colonised and under the control of Japan, until the Allied powers who won World WarII took the land away from Japan and gave it to Chiang Kai-Shek and his fleeing 1 million-strong population. To further complicate the matter, no armistice or peace treaty was ever signed between them in this regard.

Chiang Kai-Shek until his death in 1976, believed that he would someday reclaim the mainland and that democracy would flourish both in Taiwan and China. Although Taiwanese and Chinese attitude toward each other remains a polarising political topic even today. It may be interesting to note that Taiwan's official name is The Republic of China (as opposed to the People's Republic of China which the mainland uses).

China for its part, never officially recognised Taiwan as a separate country and has continued to promote its 'One Country, Two Systems' policy, which would effectively shrink Taiwan's autonomy and recognition in global standing. This is the same line China holds for Hong Kong and Macau as well.

Recently China also blocked Taiwan from the WHO's World Health Assembly and has warned international airlines, hotel chains and even some countries not to refer to Taiwan as a country. A military invasion of Taiwan remains a very real possibility to this date.