The Friends Reunion special episode in China was quite different. Appearances by Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber and the K-pop group BTS were dropped from different versions of the special when they streamed on Thursday on three Chinese video platforms, as per a report by The New York Times.
The missing cameos involved celebrities who had reportedly managed to irk Beijing. Lady Gaga has been forbidden in China since her meeting with the Dalai Lama in 2016. Justin Bieber made China angry when he posted a photo from the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, which honors Japan’s war dead, including war criminals from World War II, in 2014. On the other hand, BTS neglected to mention the sacrifice of China’s troops when recalling the pain of the Korean War last year, despite troops fighting on the North Korean side.
