
Houston Rockets general manager apologises for Hong Kong protest tweet - wei_jok
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-basketball-nba/chinese-businesses-broadcaster-punish-houston-rockets-over-managers-hk-protest-tweet-idUSKCN1WL04T
======
alkonaut
Wait, a person expressed views in favour of democracy and felt he had to
backtrack because of pressure from a dictatorship?

Here's how this works: we express views that anger dictatorships, and if there
is even a minute chance that your business tanks because of it - then you were
in the wrong market or had the wrong owners.

The right thing to do here for the NBA would be to stand behind this tweet.
Corporations need to be constantly _trolling_ China. I'm talking megacorps
marking the anniversaries of Tianmen, or calling Taiwan "the totally
independent country of Taiwan" and so on.

~~~
simonh
The problem isn't with angering dictatorships, it's about angering a lot of
ordinary Chinese mainlanders who have been convinced that the HK protesters
are traitors.

This is a serious problem, because it's simply not possible to persuade them
otherwise, because the channels to do so are censored by the Chinese
government. It's a crazily scary issue. My family is half Chinese and my niece
came over from China this summer. The only things she knew about the HK
protests was that some violent anti-mainlander anarchists had protested
against the use of the Chinese flag on some buildings. The vast majority of
mainlanders have never even heard of the extradition law.

As a result mainland Chinese see any support for the HK protesters as being a
direct attack against the identity, nationality and integrity of China and
Chinese people. Foreigners being seen as interfering is seen as further proof
that the HK protests are incited by foreigners and are an anti-Chinese plot so
unless it's handled very carefully it can make the situation worse, not
better.

It's tough, but I think the best approach, if you do want to express support
for HK, is instead to focus on the Censorship of the issues by the Chinese
government.

~~~
mytailorisrich
It's not a question of censorship. This is caused by the protesters themselves
(at least some of them).

I'm in the UK and the Chinese people I know only need to watch the reporting
on the BBC to be convinced that a lot of protesters are anti-China and
potentially propped up by foreign forces: Violence, attacks on government
buildings, attacks on the Chinese flag, flying foreign flags, calling on the
Brits and Americans to intervene, etc.

The actions of these protesters have ensured that the Chinese government
cannot do anything but standing firm.

I don't know what Chinese TVs show to the public on the mainland, but if they
show what the BBC shows then the people can only be outraged and absolutely
against the protesters.

The way these protesters behave has completely drowned any message regarding
democracy, which the Chinese public might actually be receptive to, though
indeed that would be censored by the media on the mainland. That's another
reason not to hand the government the stick to beat them with.

~~~
simonh
>The actions of these protesters have ensured that the Chinese government
cannot do anything but standing firm.

Standing firm on what though? Since hardly any Chinese people even know about
the extradition law, what does standing firm on that achieve? It has zero
relevance to the issue from a mainlander perspective, so conceding on it would
have zero negative publicity impact. In fact none of the actual issues are
visible to mainlanders at all.

~~~
mytailorisrich
The protests are no longer about the extradition law. It has been fully
withdrawn.

The current violent (and often visibly anti-China) actions ensure that the
mainland's public opinion fully supports the government in taking a tough and
inflexible stance against the protesters as long as violence and disturbances
continue.

The protesters should take a page from Gandhi's book: You couldn't fault him.
In HK the government does not even need to try to fault the protesters...

~~~
missosoup
You mean as long as PLA keeps planting undercover operatives amongst the
protesters as agent provocateurs to incite the violence that's then used as an
excuse for a 'harder' stance?

Please, ask me for sources. I have probably over a hundred unspinnable photos
and videos collected from r/HongKong by now. New ones keep coming every day.

Here's an appetiser:

[https://i.redd.it/0o2411874tj31.jpg](https://i.redd.it/0o2411874tj31.jpg)

~~~
mytailorisrich
Right, all those hundreds, if not more of people are all undercover operatives
and without them the protests would have stopped long ago. It was them who
stormed the LegCo... This is not serious.

~~~
simonh
Proof that government agents are fomenting and inciting the violence "isn't
serious"?

~~~
mytailorisrich
Trying to discard and ignore all the violent actions, and actions that look
very anti-China by claiming that they are "fomented" by the government is not
serious.

One day we read an interview with a guy who took part in the storming of the
LegCo and everybody here is in awe before its determination. The next, someone
criticise violent actions and you guys claim that they are by government'
agents provocateurs...

And every day I can watch BBC reporters following violent protests from
within.

There is nothing wrong with admitting that some forms of protest are hurting
the cause of democracy.

~~~
missosoup
What would you suggest the people of HK should do instead to defend their
democracy? Stop protesting, pretend nothing ever happened, keep CCP puppet
Carrie Lam in power and wait for more CCP encroachment?

We already know how that turns out.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causeway_Bay_Books_disappearan...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causeway_Bay_Books_disappearances)

------
wei_jok
A true Rockets fan in China:
[https://twitter.com/rachel_cheung1/status/118113022981048729...](https://twitter.com/rachel_cheung1/status/1181130229810487297)

~~~
shawnz
The picture of him in confinement is horrifying.

------
jackvalentine
If a guy who has earned a GM's salary for years can't stick by his guns
regarding free speech before the dollar then maybe nobody can.

------
PavlovsCat
> "Fight for freedom, stand with Hong Kong" -> "I was merely voicing one
> thought, based on one interpretation, of one complicated event," he said,
> adding that he had since heard and considered other perspectives.

Unless I hear those "other perspectives", I'll simply assume he was exposed to
pressure, not reason.

~~~
dagw
Exposed to the perspectives of how much money he personally stood to gain/lose
on the outcome of the NBA's deals with China.

------
melling
China is a huge market for the NBA, and it could disappear in a tweet.

[https://www.si.com/nba/2019/10/07/daryl-morey-rockets-
china-...](https://www.si.com/nba/2019/10/07/daryl-morey-rockets-china-hong-
kong-basketball)

Now that China is the second largest economy, it has a lot of global
influence.

~~~
sdinsn
> it has a lot of global influence

It only has influence if we give it influence, through crushing dissent like
this. The NBA is complicit in the destruction of democracy and the ethnic
cleansing of a religious minority; don't forget that.

------
GooglyMoogly
Previous discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21176976](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21176976)

~~~
wei_jok
Thanks. I couldn't read the WSJ article (paywall) so submitted the reuters
article here.

~~~
GooglyMoogly
When I google the WSJ article URL, and click the link from the search results,
I don't get a paywall.

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conradfr
It seems that the latest South Park episode was once again timely.

------
paxys
Could you imagine the NBA making players apologize for posting Tweets
criticizing Trump? Remember when LeBron and others wore "I Can't Breathe"
t-shirts and Adam Silver supported them?

Teams & players should be taking a strong stand here to support one of their
own, but this really shows that there is a $$$ value for everything, including
freedom of speech and expression.

Economic threats from a foreign government should be treated the same as
military ones. I'm sure Rockets games will be back on air in an instant if US
sanctions expand to completely block NBA broadcasting in China, player visas
and sports apparel manufacturing.

~~~
the_resistence
And that's why I will never watch another game and seek to keep any spending
out of those traitors' hands.

------
m0skit0
Capitalism's democracy.

