He’s a massive star. He could have said, “no, fuck the CCP, I won’t do it.” It’s not like he would have never gotten work in Hollywood again. He’s worth way too much even if he doesn’t kowtow to the CCP.
I probably worded that poorly. I’m really mean in terms of scale. Spacey is for whatever reason coming to mind. Not to excuse his absolutely abhorrent behavior, but really old allegations of arguable “consensual” sex (with a minor) is just not comparable to sticking your finger in the eye of the CCP. Will Smith might be a better example.
I’m sounding a lot like an apologist when really I’m just trying to say it’s difficult for me to judge Cena for saying “I didn’t mean to offend anyone and love the Chinese people” when it isn’t my career on the line.
Ok? It’s worth applauding them for choosing that stance. I’m still not going to judge Cena too harshly for opting out of a conflict that he can’t really impact anyway, when by all other accounts he seems to be a pretty admirable person.
It’s not like he said “Taiwan must immediately surrender to the Chinese government”. He just chose not to get stuck in the middle of it. You may see that as cowardly but it’s easy to hold that position behind a shroud of anonymity.
Edit: It’s all lip-service anyhow. I’m not going to bother going down the list but I would imagine most of it’s members don’t exactly have a huge following in China, where Cena does. I’m sure Ted Cruz is super upset about not being able to enter the country.
There is no way the studio didn’t push for that.
He’s a massive star. He could have said, “no, fuck the CCP, I won’t do it.” It’s not like he would have never gotten work in Hollywood again. He’s worth way too much even if he doesn’t kowtow to the CCP.
TBF celebrities bigger than him have been cancelled for lesser offenses than taking on the CCP.
Such as?
I probably worded that poorly. I’m really mean in terms of scale. Spacey is for whatever reason coming to mind. Not to excuse his absolutely abhorrent behavior, but really old allegations of arguable “consensual” sex (with a minor) is just not comparable to sticking your finger in the eye of the CCP. Will Smith might be a better example.
I’m sounding a lot like an apologist when really I’m just trying to say it’s difficult for me to judge Cena for saying “I didn’t mean to offend anyone and love the Chinese people” when it isn’t my career on the line.
As you can see here, plenty of performers with less star power than Cena are banned from entering China for even mild criticism. He bootlicked.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_banned_from_entering_China
He has less integrity than Katy Perry.
Ok? It’s worth applauding them for choosing that stance. I’m still not going to judge Cena too harshly for opting out of a conflict that he can’t really impact anyway, when by all other accounts he seems to be a pretty admirable person.
It’s not like he said “Taiwan must immediately surrender to the Chinese government”. He just chose not to get stuck in the middle of it. You may see that as cowardly but it’s easy to hold that position behind a shroud of anonymity.
Edit: It’s all lip-service anyhow. I’m not going to bother going down the list but I would imagine most of it’s members don’t exactly have a huge following in China, where Cena does. I’m sure Ted Cruz is super upset about not being able to enter the country.
Dude, he apologized in Mandarin. That’s pretty bootlicky.