The National Basketball Association remains on a collision course with China after Commissioner Adam Silver defended freedom of expression, signaling that the league won’t back down in the face of outrage over a tweet about the Hong Kong protests. Hours after China’s state television and Tencent Holdings Ltd. said that they would halt airing and streaming preseason games in the country with 800 million fans, Commissioner Adam Silver told reporters Tuesday that the NBA won’t tell people what they can or can’t say.
“It is inevitable that people around the world -- including from America and China -- will have different viewpoints over different issues,” Silver said in a separate statement issued before the press conference. “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.”
His comments put the NBA in direct confrontation with Beijing, which has viewed any hint of support for the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong as a challenge to the nation’s sovereignty. Daryl Morey, general manager of the Houston Rockets basketball team, triggered the controversy with his tweet Friday -- deleted later -- supporting the demonstrators. That sparked fury from supporters of the Communist government, casting a shadow over the NBA’s ties with one of its most promising markets.
Silver declined to apologize for the tweet, but said that he regretted the consequences. “It’s not something that we expected to happen,” he told reporters. “I think it’s unfortunate,” he said, referring to China’s decision not to broadcast some of the games.
“To the extent that we are upsetting people, I regret that,” he said.
The pro-democracy movement that has rocked Hong Kong since June has become a red line for companies doing business in China. The targeting of the NBA by China is the latest episode of China flexing its muscle against businesses that have failed to toe its official line. Coming under intense pressure after some employees participated in the marches, the chief executive officer and the chairman of Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. stepped down, as the carrier cracked down on its workers.
“The implicit threat is that there will be a price to pay for companies that do not actively support Beijing’s political stance on Hong Kong,” said Hugo Brennan, principal Asia analyst at global risk consultancy Verisk Maplecroft. “This trend is an emerging risk for corporates of all stripes that have exposure to the mainland market.”
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