In a recent article from the South Morning China Post, WWE superstar John Cena issued an apology to Chinese fans after calling Taiwan a country during an interview when promoting the opening of his latest movie F9.
Cena made the comment on Taiwanese broadcasting network TVBS. Soon after the interview he posted a video message on Sina Weibo clarifying by stating the following:
“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. 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 apologize, I apologize, I’m very sorry. You must understand that I really love, really respect China and the Chinese people. My apologies. See you.”
The reported stated that there are more than 5,000 comments on Cena’s Weibo apology.
“Please say in Chinese that Taiwan is part of China. Otherwise, we won’t accept it,” wrote one Weibo user. The message had over 3,200 likes
It was also noted that Cena started learning Mandarin to help WWE’s integration in China, and that Cena has since gone viral many times for his enthusiastic Mandarin-speaking abilities.
Fast & Furious 9, or what is also referred to as simply F9 was released in Hong Kong on May 19 and will be released in theaters in the United States on Friday, June 25.
Cena is expected to return to the United States in July, after wrapping up filming in Vancouver, Canada for the new upcoming HBO Max series Peacemaker. There has also been speculation that Cena will be returning to WWE television when WWE starts back up touring with live in-person fans.
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