• Thursday, March 28, 2024
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China state broadcaster and Tencent stop airing pre-season NBA games

China state broadcaster and Tencent stop airing pre-season NBA games

China’s state broadcaster CCTV, the main television distributor of the NBA in the country, and Tencent have halted plans to air the basketball league’s preseason games, in a sharp escalation of a row sparked by a team official’s support for the Hong Kong protests.

Daryl Morey, general manager of the Houston Rockets, posted “stand with Hong Kong” on his Twitter account last Friday. The phrase echoed a slogan from demonstrations that have plunged the Asian financial hub into political crisis.

Amid angry calls for an apology from Chinese fans and state media, the Rockets’ commercial partners have suspended business dealings with the team, broadcasters said they would not air Rockets’ games and Alibaba’s Taobao, China’s largest ecommerce platform, halted sales of the team’s merchandise.

The NBA had attempted to distance itself from the incident, releasing a statement calling Mr Morey’s tweet “regrettable”. Fuelling accusations that the league was trying to have it both ways, however, a Chinese-language version of the statement used a harsher phrasing that was closer in tone to that used by Chinese officialdom. The league said on Tuesday that there should have been “no discrepancy” in the two statements.

The NBA’S response drew bipartisan criticism from US politicians who alleged the league had abandoned its values to maintain Chinese business deals.

Comments by NBA commissioner Adam Silver in an interview with Japan’s Kyodo news on Monday reignited the controversy and prompted CCTV’S decision. Mr Silver voiced his support for Mr Morey’s “freedom of political expression” and also backed an open letter by Joe Tsai, Brooklyn Nets owner and co-founder of Chinese tech group Alibaba, which said the tweet supported a “separatist movement”.

Mr Silver tried to clarify further in a statement on Tuesday: “It is inevitable that people around the world — including from America and China — will have different viewpoints over different issues. It is not the role of the NBA to adjudicate those differences.

Read also: China and Hong Kong: the ultimate test of authoritarian rule

“However, the NBA will not put itself in a position of regulating what players, employees and team owners say or will not say on these issues. We simply could not operate that way.”

CCTV said in a statement that it strongly opposed Mr Silver’s support for Mr Morey’s comments. “Any remarks that touch upon a nation’s sovereignty and social stability are outside the scope of free speech,” the broadcaster wrote in a statement. It added that it will “immediately take stock of all co-operation and exchange with the NBA”.

Last season, almost 500m Chinese watched NBA games on streaming platforms owned by Tencent. This year, the league extended its online rights deal with the tech company for five years worth $1.5bn, double the value of its previous contract.

The Chinese government joined in the sharp criticism of the NBA on Tuesday.

“If you go against the opinion of the Chinese public you will not be successful,” a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said.

“The NBA has been [active] in China for a very long time,” he added. “The prerequisite for its co-operation and communication with China is to know the opinion of the Chinese public . . . The NBA knows clearly what to do and what to say next.”

The announcements come after a number of Chinese celebrities had said they would boycott NBA events in the country, including a fan evening in Shanghai on Wednesday and an exhibition game the following day between the Los Angeles Lakers and Brooklyn Nets. Both events would normally draw large crowds.

Among those vowing not to attend were actors Wu Jinyan and Zheng Yunlong and singer Fan Chengcheng. In a statement on Weibo, the Chinese microblogging platform, boy band Unine apologised to their fans for dropping out of the event, but explained that they could not attend because all members “oppose any kind of action or remark that attempts to split the motherland”.

The visit to China by Mr Silver, which included pre-season games in Shanghai and Shenzhen, is part of the NBA’S efforts to maintain its dominant position in China according to John Wolohan, a professor of sports management at Syracuse University.

“The one thing that cannot be understated is how much people under 40 in China love the NBA,” Mr Wolohan wrote in an email. “The NBA and the Houston Rockets are not going to take down [or change] the Chinese government. So, they can either stay in China and increase their brand, or they can take a stand [over free speech].”

The loyalty of China’s basketball fans, however, could help the league ride out the controversy, given the NBA remains “streets ahead” of the country’s domestic basketball competition, according to Beijing-based sports analyst Mark Dreyer. “If you boycott the NBA, what are you left with?” he asked.