Hello Kitty firm apologises, cuts ties with Japanese spy show after China backlash

Sanrio, the Japanese company behind the popular character Hello Kitty, apologised on Thursday over its tie-up with a TV spy drama criticised as anti-China, cancelling a merchandise collaboration with the show. It comes days after Chinese sponsors dropped football superstar Kylian Mbappé over comments calling communist leader Mao Zedong a "dictator", for which the Real Madrid forward later apologised. Read moreReal Madrid apologises to China over Mbappé's Mao Zedong comments In one episode of "Vivant", a drama with a wide audience in Japan, a Chinese-affiliated organisation had been depicted torturing a member of the Japanese military's unofficial spy unit. "We have recently received feedback from various quarters regarding the collaborative merchandise with the Japanese television drama VIVANT," Sanrio said in a statement. "We sincerely apologise for any concern this may have caused." The project "contains expressions that are inconsistent with the Sanrio Group's corporate philosophy", it said. Sanrio said it had "decided to cease this collaboration, as well as all subsequent projects and promotional campaigns". Hello Kitty and other cute Sanrio characters had been depicted as char...