The Real Reason John Cena Apologized to China: What He Refused to Do

John Cena revisits the 2021 firestorm on Joe Rogan’s podcast, saying he angered China by calling Taiwan a country—then enraged America by apologizing for it.

John Cena just revisited the 2021 mess where he upset China, then ticked off America trying to fix it. He told the whole thing to Joe Rogan, and honestly, it’s a perfect example of how one clumsy promo line can snowball into a weeks-long PR headache.

How one Mandarin line blew up

This started during the Fast & Furious 9 press run, when Cena did a Mandarin-language interview with Taiwanese broadcaster TVBS. In that segment, he referred to Taiwan as a country — the phrasing apparently came straight from the Pinyin notes he was reading. In China, that’s a major no-go; Beijing considers Taiwan part of China, and, as Cena puts it now, he hadn’t clocked just how sensitive that is. He called it a full-on Ron Burgundy moment — reading what was in front of him, not realizing the grenade hidden inside.

His takeaway now is pretty simple: knowing a language is not the same as knowing all the cultural fault lines that come with it. He said he felt like he almost got canceled for the very thing he’d been praised for — trying to learn Mandarin for international press.

The apology that made it worse (and in Mandarin, no less)

Once the China backlash hit, Cena taped a Mandarin apology video and posted it on Weibo. He said he made a mistake and tried to show respect. The wording was unmistakable:

"I must say right now, it’s very, very, very, very, very, very important. I love and respect China and Chinese people. I’m very, very sorry for my mistake."

That, in turn, infuriated a lot of people back home. Cena says he’s a patriot and loves the U.S., but the reaction stateside was brutal — he felt like nobody was happy on any side of it.

Career fallout: Peacemaker panic

Rogan asked if it was really that big a deal. Cena’s answer: yes. He genuinely thought he might get fired from Peacemaker. He even went to James Gunn and basically said, if you need to cut me loose, I get it. He also understands why the whole thing played like Hollywood bending to China, which didn’t help the perception of the apology.

Looking back, he calls his response a bad move and says he’s learned not to be so reactive. His new rule is: breathe, get context, then act, not the other way around.

"Take a breath, find out what’s going on, find out the best path of action, maybe give it a few days, maybe give it a hot second, um, and then move forward. But immediately I was like, 'Oh, they’re mad. You want us to do this? Fine, no problem. I’ll fix it right now.' Not only did I not try to fix the hole in the boat, I sunk the Titanic."

The language piece: a decade in, and done talking

Cena says he studied Mandarin for ten years and still didn’t feel conversationally fluent — the hill was steeper than he expected. After the controversy, he’s basically parked the skill. Even if asked to use it now, he won’t. His reasoning is blunt: he doesn’t feel culturally fluent enough to know what to call that part of the world without causing another incident, and he hasn’t done the research to feel confident about it.

The PR script factor

One last wrinkle he mentioned to Rogan: he didn’t write the line that triggered this. He says he was reading what the movie’s PR team had prepped for him during the Taiwanese interview. It’s not an excuse, but it explains how a single phrase slipped through and lit the fuse.

Quick recap

• During an F9 promo interview with Taiwan’s TVBS (in Mandarin), Cena used phrasing that called Taiwan a country.
• China reacted immediately; Cena posted a Mandarin apology video on Weibo saying he made a mistake and respects China and the Chinese people.
• The U.S. backlash followed; he says it felt like nobody was happy and the stateside reaction hit hardest.
• He worried the whole thing could cost him Peacemaker and even told James Gunn he’d understand if he got fired.
• He now thinks reacting instantly was the wrong play and says next time he’d wait, get context, and move carefully.
• Despite a decade of study, he doesn’t feel fluent enough culturally or conversationally and won’t speak Mandarin publicly anymore.
• He says the original line came from PR copy he was given to read.