NBA player Enes Kanter wears ‘Free China’ shoes featuring image of Winnie the Pooh during game

The Turkish NBA player continues to protest against Chinese President Xi Jinping wearing shoes made by dissident artist Badiucao

Kanter’s latest pair of shoes feature Kanter holding the head of Winnie the Pooh along with a Tiananmen Square drawing

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Enes Kanter of the Boston Celtics wore shoes featuring the words ‘Free China’ while on the bench during his team’s game against the Houston Rockets on Sunday. Photo: Enes Kanter/Instagram

Published: 2:36pm, 25 Oct 2021Updated: 10:25am, 26 Oct 2021

Enes Kanter continued his campaign of criticism against China and its president Xi Jinping on Sunday when he wore another controversial pair of shoes, this time with the words “Free China” emblazoned on them, while on the bench for the Boston Celtics against the Houston Rockets in Texas.

It is the third time in the past week Kanter, who did not play in the game, wore shoes featuring an anti-China message. The shoes have been created in conjunction with Shanghai-born, Australia-based dissident cartoonist Badiucao, who had a show in Hong Kong cancelled in 2018.

The first pair, worn on Wednesday, featured a message which read “Free Tibet”. The second, worn on Friday, read “Free Uyghur”. The latest pair featured an image of Kanter holding the head of cartoon character Winnie the Pooh.

“Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party, someone has to teach you a lesson,” wrote Kanter on an accompanying social media post with photos of the shoes. “I will never apologise for speaking the truth. You can not buy me. You can not scare me. You can not silence me.”

Likeness of Winnie the Pooh being compared to Chinese President Xi Jinping is reportedly banned in China after an image went viral in 2018 in which he was seen walking with then US president Barack Obama.

The shoes also featured the iconic “Tank Man” scene with the tops of the tanks replaced by Winnie the Pooh heads.

Images of the Tiananmen Square crackdown are banned in China and have been scrubbed from the country’s restricted internet.

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