Chinese state television refused to broadcast Real Madrid's match against Racing Santander following the controversy over Kylian Mbappe's comments about Mao Zedong, the country's former leader. A decision that still stands despite the apology of the French star, the Real Madrid club and the La Liga organization.
According to the BBC, state network CCTV did not broadcast Real Madrid's match on Sunday, November 1, which ended in a 3-0 victory for that team.
The crisis began after the publication of a video of Mbappe, in which he depicted a humorous image of his face on the body of a similar Mao and referred to him indirectly as a "Chinese dictator".
Mbappé's statements drew a strong response from the Chinese authorities, and a number of Chinese companies also stopped their advertising cooperation with this player.
After the protests spread, Mbappe apologized and said: "My comment was ill-considered and I now understand that it hurt many people in China and Chinese communities around the world."
Real Madrid and La Liga also apologized, and the Chinese Foreign Ministry announced that it takes the French star's apology seriously.
However, China Media Group, which runs CCTV, has not yet announced when the Spanish league will resume broadcasting.
AFP also confirmed that the Real Madrid game was not broadcast on closed-circuit sports channels and the live coverage of the 11th week of La Liga games on Chinese state television was stopped.
In Sunday's game, Real Madrid beat Racing Santander 3-0 with goals from Mbappe, Jude Bellingham and Ian Diomande. A game that Chinese fans could not watch on their country's state television.