Turns Out, Even Children’s Toys Can Set Off International Outrage

You see it all when you take up a career in international espionage. Almost anything can set off an international incident. Loose talk from a soccer star. The world can turn on two words. “Hello Kitty,” for example. From Reuters:Hello Kitty maker Sanrio has canceled a collaboration with a Japanese TV spy show after a backlash in China, the second incident in days to highlight the tightrope foreign companies and celebrities must walk in the lucrative market. The Wednesday announcement by Sanrio’s Chinese subsidiary came just after French soccer star Kylian Mbappé apologized for remarks about late Chinese leader Mao Zedong that saw several Chinese sponsors cut ties with him.The hit show VIVANT, produced by Japanese broadcaster TBS and also available on Netflix, centers on Japanese spies and a terrorist organization called Tent. The latest season, currently being aired, depicts a fictional Chinese intelligence agency capturing and torturing some of the Japanese spies. Chinese anger over Sanrio’s range of soft toys, including Hello Kitty, dressed as spies from the show has simmered for days on social media and came to a head this week when Chinese state media ramped up the condemnation.Japan and China have been yelling at each other again, which historically has resulted in really terrible things, about which China has not been shy of reminding Japan. From the BBC:Vivant is about a Japanese salaryman who finds himself entangled in an international web of crime and espionage. Its first season, which aired in 2023, was set in a fictional Central Asian country. Its second season, which premiered in July, features Chinese agents torturing a Japanese spy by cutting his fingers and stabbing his abdomen. Chinese state outlets, including CCTV, argued that these tactics “highly overlap” with those historically used by Japanese troops against the Chinese, and that the drama “distorts the truth.”Meanwhile, before Hello Kitty–gate blew up, international soccer star Kylian Mbappé got himself canceled by some Chinese sponsors for calling the late Mao Tse-tung a “dictator” while discussing an online meme. From The Guardian: Within hours Mbappé found himself condemned online, before being unceremoniously dropped by brands, then held responsible for state television suspending the entire top Spanish league from its schedule. On Tuesday Mbappé apologised—“My comment was ill-judged, and I now understand that it hurt many people in China”—as did La Liga, which released a statement saying it “deeply regrets the offence that Kylian Mbappé’s recent comments have caused among Chinese fans”. Foreign brands from Mercedes to Versace and celebrities from John Cena to Katy Perry have previously been sent to the sin bin for crossing China’s political lines on Tibet, Hong Kong and Taiwan.The “sin bin.”All life is hockey.