China censors Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga and BTS from Friends reunion

Not all Friends fans got to experience the hotly anticipated reunion in its entirety, as a slew of famous faces were noticeably missing from the special.

In China, guest stars BTS, Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber were nowhere to be seen during the television event of the year as all three of the country’s biggest steamers with broadcast rights to the show censored their scenes.

Almost six minutes of footage from the Friends reunion was reportedly cut out on Chinese streaming services iQiyi, Youku and Tencent Video.

The censorship is reportedly because the two singers and the K-Pop band have previously ‘insulted’ China.

Gaga, who joined forces with Lisa Kudrow for a Smelly Cat duet, is said to not be welcome in China after she met with the Dalai Lama, who Beijing accuses of being a dangerous separatist, in 2016.

BTS is said to have offended the country last October after failing to speak of the sacrifices of Chinese soldiers in the Korean war while accepting a prize celebrating their contributions to US and Korea relations.

Meanwhile, Justin has been in China’s bad books since 2014 after photographing himself at Tokyo’s controversial Yasukuni war shrine.

He was formally banned from performing in the country in 2017 by the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture because of a ‘series of bad behaviours’.

As well as censoring some of the music industry’s biggest names, the Chinese streaming services also cut out a message from a gay fan.

Seemingly innocent clips from the sitcom including a scene where Monica recounts how Chandler and Joey peed on her because of a jellyfish sting were also censored.

A shot of Joey in his underwear was also given the boot.

However, it is unclear whether the streaming services made the decision to cut scenes or whether the Chinese government initiated the order.

The reunion saw Friends stars Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry, and David Schwimmer returned to the iconic comedy’s original soundstage for a real-life unscripted celebration of the beloved show.

The Friends Reunion is available to stream on NOW.