China claims that Taiwan is an indispensable part of the Middle Kingdom and not a country in its own right, something that's generated a lot of discussion and debate online. However, to suggest that Taiwan is a country in China is a big no-no, and that's a mistake John Cena made in an interview promoting F9: The Fast Saga.
The movie was directed by Taiwanese-American director Justin Lin and actually premiered in Taiwan.
Talking to TVBS, Cena mentioned in passing that Taiwan would be "the first country" to watch the latest Fast & Furious movie. However, after a huge amount of backlash (the video received nearly 3 million views on Weibo), Cena shared a response - in Mandarin - apologising to Chinese fans.
"Hi China, I’m John Cena. I’m in the middle of Fast & Furious 9 promotions. I’m doing a lot of interviews," he said. "I made a mistake in one of my interviews. Everyone was asking me if I could use Chinese...the staff [of the movie] gave me a lot of information, so there was a lot of interviews and information."
"I made one mistake. I have to say something very, very, important now. I love and respect China and Chinese people. I’m very, very sorry about my mistake. I apologize, I’m very sorry. You must understand that I really love, really respect China and the Chinese people. My apologies. See you."
Cena has now received some backlash from fans outside of China, with even former WWE Superstar CM Punk changing his bio on Twitter to read, "Taiwan is a country."