WATCH: John Cena Apologizes in Fluent Mandarin for Calling Taiwan a Country During Fast & Furious Promotion

Actor and WWE star John Cena has apologized to China after referring to Taiwan as a country in a recent interview.

Cena is currently on a promotional tour for Fast & Furious 9, which led to him giving an interview to Taiwanese broadcaster TVBS. “Taiwan is the first country that can watch F9,” Cena said in the interview, according to CNN.

The comments from Cena sparked an uproar in China since even though Taiwan is a self-governed, democratic island nation, China claims that Taiwan is actually part of their territory. The matter of Taiwan’s sovereignty has been a thorny political issue for decades, but China has taken increased measures in recent years to pressure Taiwan and have the international community recognize their suzerain claim over it.

This week, Cena released a video on the Chinese social media platform Weibo, speaking in Mandarin as he said that he “made a mistake” by calling Taiwan a country.

“I must say now that, very very very importantly, I love and respect China and Chinese people,” Cena said according to multiple translations of his remarks. “I’m very, very sorry about my mistake. I apologize, I’m very sorry. You must understand that I really love, really respect China and the Chinese people. My apologies. See you.”

Cena’s apology comes as Hollywood and other entertainment industries regularly come under sociopolitical pressure over how much they do to appease China in order to expand their international markets. Disney faced outcry last year for not acknowledging the Uighar genocide during the filming of Mulan, and the NBA has also been criticized for doing business with China while ignoring the country’s suppression of human rights.