Opinion | Xinjiang cotton row: Nike’s swoosh stands strong in Chinese sport as athletes like Guo Ailun count cost

China’s one-time NBA hope star Guo Ailun is still MIA, absent from the Chinese Basketball Association because he signed for the wrong sportswear brand. The mystery injury that is keeping him out of CBA action since March 26 seems to be that he wears Jordan shoes. Despite rumours that Guo would return to action for the Liaoning Flying Leopards in midweek he sat out their big game with the Xinjing Flying Tigers, the seventh in a row. The team didn’t miss him, beating their rivals 96-84 in the 54th game of the CBA season to stay second with the play-offs approaching in less than two weeks. Reports now suggest he might return on April 11 but don’t hold your breath while the message is that Nike – the owner of Jordan – is not welcome in China. Except it really is welcome. It just depends who or rather what you are. Xinjiang cotton row: Nike’s ties with Chinese sport too hard to cut Guo is an easy target as the only Jordan brand player in the league. Only he and former NBA player Yi Jianlian have exceptions to the league-wide deal with Chinese brand Li-Ning. Yi is a Nike athlete too but in less of a predicament as he is still battling back from injury. While social media turned on him for signing a Nike basketball at a recent event, chiding him for his lack of patriotism, the fact that he is not fit to play means there is no issue around his absence. FT: KOR 🇰🇷 1 - 2 🇨🇳 CHNWang Shuang hands China a vital advantage going into the Olympic play off second-leg next week! pic.twitter.com/YHmJgb34mw — #AsianCup2023 (@afcasiancup) April 8, 2021 Not so for Guo, whose only appearance on a court since March 26 was on social media where he showed off his ball handling skills in a video that was most of note for the fact he was playing in just his socks. That fuelled then belief that his current ineligibility is down to his sponsorship, something which appeared to be confirmed by a Liaoning TV host on Weibo this week. “Guo Ailun is still subject to commercial contract restrictions. This problem needs to be resolved by the league in an official form,” they wrote. “Guo Ailun himself now very much hopes to represent the team and everyone needs it.” China women's team beat South Korea away from home in the 1st leg of the 2021 Olympic Games qualifying playoffs. Zhang Xin opened the deadlock in the 33'. After being equalized 1:1, Wang Shuang calmly converted the penalty to make it 2:1 in the 73'. 2nd leg on Apr 13 in Suzhou. pic.twitter.com/t1cnwGVUhM — Titan Sports Plus (@titan_plus) April 8, 2021 The irony is that Guo despite his lack of recent game time could still be the CBA’s MVP this season. He has played more than the 39-game minimum and has averaged 3.4 points, 4.1 rebounds and 8.1 assists over his 42 appearances. There is a reason the NBA Summer League standout was signed to Jordan brand, even if that may ultimately cost him this season. It’s a bizarre situation where public anger prevents a player from playing but the powers that be can keep quiet despite the opprobrium. Jordan brand’s Guo Ailun sits out CBA game amid Xinjiang cotton row The CBA itself – and chairman Yao Ming – remain silent. They are perhaps confident that this will blow over before they need to comment. Nike first sponsored the Chinese national basketball teams in 1980 and the swoosh has been on the uniforms of Chinese athletes as they have made history – 22 of the country’s 28 sporting federations wore Nike at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. China's Guo Ailun out here breaking ankles in Summer League 😱 #SCtop10 pic.twitter.com/tPa8TCFgwt — SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) July 9, 2019 Four years earlier in Athens 12 of China’s Olympic gold medalists, including the winner of the country’s first track and field gold, hurdler Liu Xiang, were sponsored by Nike. At a grass roots level, the backlash against Nike and Adidas continues apace. The brands have seen their logos blurred out on popular television talent shows, for example, though the real losers there would be the poor video editors given the task. Similarly, Guo is the one suffering while Nike and Chinese basketball remain unaffected. As for football, there is no easy target to stand in for Guo but individual teams are playing the game of courting the online patriots. Chinese Super League club Shenzhen had a team event ahead of travelling to their bubble for the new season where the team’s Nike logos were covered, with some even covering the swoosh on their shoes. Shenzhen team event today before they travel to the bubble, notice the Nike logo on all the polos covered up, as well as on the shoes of the guy on the right pic.twitter.com/kzpO7XCK4l — Brandon C. (@modernleifeng) April 7, 2021 Who knows what will happen when the season starts? There is the possibility that players or teams take it upon themselves to cover the Nike logos on the shirts, shorts and socks of their kit plus those on their boots – as some have done at training camps. Some poor players might be more tape than anything else if they also need to cover up their visible tattoos – a hangover from a previous ruling that deemed them unsuitable just as “hip-hop culture” and cleavage had been elsewhere in the entertainment industry. Tatt’s your lot: Chinese Football Association bans players from showing their ink during matches If teams decide to cover up it will be likely unilateral rather than a message from on high, at least not officially, because so far they have been seen on the pitch. When China’s women beat their South Korean counterparts in their Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games qualifying play-off first-leg on Thursday, the swoosh was unmolested. China won 2-1 to take an advantage to the home leg in Suzhou on Tuesday and put one foot in the departure lounge for Tokyo. Fifa appears to question Chinese Football Association’s tattoo ban in cryptic Weibo post The women remain in stark contrast to the men’s team, whose status as a national embarrassment was compounded by dropping below Curacao and Cape Verde in the latest Fifa rankings this week. That – not the brand on the shirt – is where China’s sports fans should be focusing their outrage.