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Letters | NBA stood up to China in free speech defence: it’s about time more brands did the same
I am writing in response to the recent fallout between the NBA and China, after Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey’s ill-fated October 4 tweet supporting Hong Kong protesters.
As a Hongkonger, I felt deeply inspired by the response of NBA commissioner Adam Silver, who said he understood that “there are consequences from that exercise of [Morey’s] freedom of speech. We will have to live with those consequences.”
In our world, big companies, even powerful Western ones, often succumb to China’s demands for the sake of earning revenue in a market of 1.4 billion people. Just when I thought that this would be yet another incident in a similar vein, the NBA proved otherwise.
We have seemingly become accustomed to China’s violations of basic human rights, including its repression of ethnic minorities, and we don’t do anything about them. It was not until the NBA storm that I learned that being “accustomed to” such things is really dangerous.
From the NBA to Winnie the Pooh, China isn’t acting like a confident nation
From the NBA to Winnie the Pooh, China isn’t acting like a confident nation
When we are accustomed to something that is wrong, it will gradually become institutionalised. This means we may, in the future, think it is all right for China to act as it does, and some of our rights, which we have enshrined in our laws, may even shrink and eventually be lost, as we are seeing in Hong Kong.
We are seeing the consequences of freedoms being whittled away, and the people being deprived of their basic rights. This chain of events is occurring for many reasons, including abuse of power by the police, and the actions of the Chinese authorities behind the facade of Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor as Hong Kong’s real decision-maker. The unrest is the result of a group of Hongkongers aiming to combat a regime that strips them of their freedoms.
From Apple to the NBA: the brands that have bowed to China
From Apple to the NBA: the brands that have bowed to China
In the face of China’s ever-increasing influence, and the power of its money, we must uphold and safeguard universal human rights. Enterprises with the brand value that the NBA enjoys shouldn’t draw back any longer, but instead stand up against authoritarianism.
Mandy Man, Yuen Long
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