John Cena has landed himself at the centre of a political storm after apologising to China for calling Taiwan a 'country' during a recent interview. 

While promoting his new film Fast 9 (the latest installment in the Fast & Furious franchise) he told a Taiwanese broadcaster in Mandarin: 'Taiwan is the first country that can watch F9'.

China, however, does not recognise the island as an independent state and sees Taiwan as an important part of its own territory instead. 

While Cena made his comments earlier this month, it was on Tuesday that he added to the controversy by apologising profusely on the social media platform Weibo. 

"I made a mistake, I must say right now. It’s so so so so so so important, I love and respect Chinese people," the Hollywood actor told his 600,000 fans. 

"I’m very sorry for my mistakes. Sorry. Sorry. I’m really sorry. You have to understand that I love and respect China and Chinese people." 

Cena's apology soon began trending in the western media too and his former WWE rival CM Punk was quick to poke fun at the situation. Check out his response on Twitter: 

Punk teased a new bio in reference to Cena's apology
Punk made his stance on the debate clear

Did we expect anything less from Punk, who is renowned for stirring the pot on social media?

He's not, of course, the only person to respond to Cena's apology, which has divided opinion both in China and worldwide. 

On Weibo, his video was viewed over 840,000 times in just a few hours and more than 10,000 commenters soon left remarks underneath. You can see the clip below:

While Punk was quick to respond to Cena on Twitter in a comical fashion, some users haven't been so kind. 

The former WWE star is in danger of falling foul of online 'cancel culture' after dropping himself right into the middle of a political storm.