China
Quentin Tarantino is having a bad week. It remains to be seen if his week is as bad as Lebron James’s was last week, but the cause is the same: the bullying communist Chinese government. Chinese censors have blocked Tarantino’s latest film from premiering in their country. Rumor has it that China film regulators did not take kindly to the director’s cartoonish depiction of martial artist Bruce Lee and are demanding that the film be recut or not be shown at all.
TikTok, the viral Chinese app that may live on your high school student’s phone, serves another devious purpose. It is a propaganda tool for the Chinese government. Australian human rights activist and Uyghur Muslim Arslan Hidayat tweeted a video taken from TikTok which was allegedly posted to an official Chinese police account in the Zhangwan District, Shiyan City, Hubei Province.
A few days ago, when Lebron James whined about his team and his league’s “difficult week,” he wasn’t just flipping off Muslim Uighurs and Hong Kong freedom protesters suffering in China. He was throwing Chinese Christians under the bus too.
Facebook and its developers have been in the race to define and correct what the platform calls hate speech. But in a speech given to Georgetown University, CEO Mark Zuckerberg suggested a different direction for the company.
There's no need for African American NBA players to stand with Hong Kong, not when America has far greater flaws, wrote The Shadow League blogger Carron J. Phillips. It's not their responsibility to save the world, especially a problem created by a white man, he argued. Instead, they should focus on overcoming white privilege and police brutality in America.
By refusing to stand up for the freedom of Hong Kong against China's oppressive government, LeBron James experienced the "most disgraceful moment" of his career, says the USA Today. Other media joined in the beat-down of the Lakers' superstar, but some excused James' words by turning their venom on America.
The National Basketball Association found itself in the middle of a political firestorm of its own making when the Houston Rockets' general manager tweeted something simple and admirable: “Fight for Freedom, Stand with Hong Kong.” The NBA’s first statement was cowardly. It began “We recognize that the views expressed by…Daryl Morey have deeply offended many of our friends and fans in China, which is regrettable.” Morey buckled and deleted his tweet.
The NBA then went overseas to grovel.
While failing CBS Evening News anchor Norah O’Donnell suggested the NBA was in a “free speech dispute with China,” the facts of the matter showed the league was perfectly fine with cracking down on free speech targeting the murderous communist state. In back to back nights, the NBA ejected peaceful advocates for democracy and freedom in Hong Kong from games here in the U.S. Despite the NBA doing the bidding of the communists, the liberal broadcast networks blacked it out from their flagship morning and evening newscasts on Wednesday and Thursday.
Apple has no problem being woke, except when it might cost the company billions of dollars. Apple removed an app, called HKmap.live, from the app store after it received criticism from the Chinese government. People’s Daily, the Chinese state newspaper, wrote a piece on Oct. 8 criticizing Apple. Two days later, Apple pulled the app down, saying it “threatens public safety.” Quartz Investigative editor John Keefe reported that Apple also took down the Quartz app in China.
The recent Chinese/NBA debacle is a time of reckoning for folks who take athlete activism seriously. In the past, superstar Golden State Warrior captain Stephen Curry has been quite vocal about status quo lefty politics and his hatred for Donald Trump, but like his coward coach, Steve Kerr, the outspoken can’t star seem to find an answer when asked about actual oppression from the NBA’s business partner, the communist Chinese government.
The NBA sure talks a good game about free speech rights ― out of one side of its collective mouth. Amidst China's seething anger over Houston general manager Daryl Morey expressing support for freedom in Hong Kong, NBA commissioner Adam Silver mildly defended the American's free speech rights. But on Tuesday night, two fans were ejected from an NBA exhibition game in Philadelphia for peacefully protesting against China. Talk about inconsistency.
Unlike some other businesses and corporations, South Park and Comedy Central aren't afraid of offending Communist China. In fact, they doubled down in Wednesday night's episode "SHOTS!!!" by having a major character shout, "[Bleep] the Chinese government!"