|
 Speaking to Taiwanese
television TVBS earlier this month, 44-year-old
Cena said Taiwan would be the first "country" to
see the latest Fast and Furious.
China regards Taiwan as its province, an
assertion that most on the self-ruled,
democratic island rejects.
"I made one mistake. I am very, very sorry for
this mistake," Cena said in Mandarin in a video
posted on his account on Weibo, a Twitter-like
microblog popular in China.
"I love and respect China and the Chinese
people," he added.
Cena joins a long list of international
celebrities who have incurred the wrath of an
increasingly nationalistic Chinese public over
their comments about Taiwan, Hong Kong or
Xinjiang.
Companies have also come under fire, with
several airlines and hotels apologising to China
in recent years for listing Taiwan as a country
on their booking websites.
Cena's apology was not enough for many mainland
Chinese netizens.
"Please use Mandarin to say Taiwan is part of
China. Otherwise we won't accept the apology,"
read a comment left on Cena's apology video that
received the most "likes".
Neither did the apology go down well in the
United States.
[to top of second column]
|
 "Can someone please help John
Cena locate his spine, please?" wrote Matt
Karolian, manager of American news website
Boston.com, on Twitter.
U.S. Senator Tom Cotton called the apology
"pathetic" in a tweet.
China's foreign ministry
spokesman Zhao Lijian said in response that
criticism of Cena in the United States did not
make sense.
Cotton's remarks were "just like waste paper,"
he added, speaking at a regular news conference
in Beijing on Wednesday.
Taiwan's Foreign Ministry declined to comment.
The movie has been a box office hit in mainland
China since its open on May 21.
Over the last weekend, China accounted for $135
million of the movie's $162 million in revenue,
according to U.S. entertainment publication
Variety.
(Reporting by Yew Lun Tian; Additional reporting
by Gabriel Crossley and Ben Blanchard; Editing
by Ana Nicolaci da Costa and Andrew Heavens)
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