John Cena is addressing one of the most controversial moments of his career.
During a recent appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience, the wrestler-turned-actor revisited the international firestorm he sparked in 2021 after referring to Taiwan as a country while promoting Fast & Furious 9, admitting the situation spiraled quickly—and in every direction.
“Just because you know the language doesn’t mean you know the culture,” Cena told Rogan on Friday, December 5.
At the time, Cena was speaking Mandarin during a promotional interview when he said Taiwan was “the first country” to see the film. The statement immediately triggered backlash in China, where Taiwan is considered a breakaway province, not a sovereign nation.
Cena explained that the moment wasn’t deliberate. “You do a million of these reads,” he said. “One of them said something like, ‘Be the first country to see this,’ and it was all in Mandarin.”
The issue, he added, was that “over there, they look through a different lens. Geopolitics are murky waters, man.”
To contain the damage, Cena posted a Mandarin-language apology video on China’s Weibo platform, calling his comment a “mistake” and emphasizing his respect for Chinese fans.
That decision only fueled the backlash back home. “I had to apologize to China,” Cena said. “And in apologizing to China, I pissed off my home country.”
“I’m a patriot. I love the United States of America and everything it stands for,” he continued. “But it was never enough. Nobody was happy. Everybody was f***ed up.”
Cena compared the moment to a pop-culture misfire. “It was like a Ron Burgundy moment,” he said, referencing Anchorman. “I just read the thing, and suddenly everyone’s like, ‘What the f*** did you just say?’”
The fallout wasn’t just online noise. Cena said he was genuinely worried about his career, especially as he was filming the first season of Peacemaker. He even told director James Gunn that he understood if he needed to be replaced. “The biggest kick in the nuts,” he said, “was people stateside getting pissed off.”
Pressed on what he took from it all, Cena didn’t sugarcoat his conclusion. “What a s***ty move by me,” he said, admitting he reacted too quickly. “I didn’t fix the hole in the boat—I sunk the Titanic.”
The experience left a lasting mark. Despite years of studying Mandarin, Cena said he now avoids speaking it publicly. “I just won’t do it,” he said. “I don’t understand enough, and I don’t have the wisdom. That skill is staying with me.”