MLB replaces NBA as US right-wing’s China battleground

Decision to move All-Star game and Tencent deal has politicised baseball’s ties with China and brought criticism from Republican figures

NBA suffered similar treatment following then Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey’s tweet supporting Hong Kong protesters

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US President Donald Trump swings a baseball bat at the White House in July 2020. Photo: EPA

Published: 5:31pm, 5 Apr 2021Updated: 6:56pm, 6 Apr 2021

Major League Baseball has replaced the NBA as the latest sporting battleground when it comes to criticism from US Republicans over China, with former United States president Donald Trump leading the charge.

The shift followed the MLB’s decision to move its All-Star Game from Atlanta over voter suppression last Friday, the day after the league signed a new deal with Chinese tech giant Tencent.

That agreement extended Tencent’s streaming rights in China until 2023 and also expanded coverage to several other countries across the region. Tencent and the MLB signed their original deal in 2018.

Tencent was at the centre of the NBA’s China crisis in 2019, which saw the league pulled from Chinese streams following a tweet from then Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey supporting Hong Kong protesters. Streaming returned, minus the Rockets, soon after.

The NBA’s relationship with China became a political football in the US with both sides of the aisle using it to score points against their rivals.

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