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[WSJ] Houston, We Have a China Problem

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout: Debate & Discussion' started by Os Trigonum, Oct 8, 2019.

  1. Os Trigonum

    Os Trigonum Member
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    op-ed this morning:

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/houston-we-have-a-china-problem-11570487719?mod=hp_opin_pos_3

    Houston, We Have a China Problem
    The NBA kowtows after the Rockets general manager fails to toe the Communist Party line.

    By
    Elliot Kaufman
    Oct. 7, 2019 6:35 pm ET

    China has become comfortable pushing around American companies—a little too comfortable. Its boycott of the National Basketball Association’s Houston Rockets, announced Sunday to muzzle support for mass protests in Hong Kong, has alerted Americans to the threat posed by China’s bullying in a way that intellectual-property theft never could.

    “Fight for freedom. Stand with Hong Kong,” tweeted sports-analytics whiz Daryl Morey, the Rockets’ general manager, on Sunday. Within a few hours, Mr. Morey had deleted the tweet, team owner Tilman Fertitta had disavowed the general manager’s views, and China had cut off the Rockets commercially. The NBA soon released a statement in English that affirmed both Beijing’s concerns and the league’s support for “individuals educating themselves and sharing their views on matters important to them.” The league released a different statement in Chinese, which began: “We are extremely disappointed in the inappropriate comments by the General Manager.”

    By Sunday night, Mr. Morey was reduced to groveling: “I was merely voicing one thought, based on one interpretation, of one complicated event,” he tweeted. That’s nonsense, but don’t blame him. He can’t take on the Chinese Communist Party alone—it isn’t a fair fight.

    China Central Television and People’s Daily, the party’s mouthpiece, editorialized against Mr. Morey. CCTV’s sports channel said it won’t air Rockets games anymore. The Chinese company Tencent, which holds exclusive digital rights to NBA games in China, said it will stop showing the team online, taking with it the 490 million fans who watched NBA games on its platforms last season. Next, two Chinese sponsors dropped the Rockets, the highly popular former team of Shanghai native Yao Ming, and the Chinese Basketball Association ceased all cooperation with it. That was China’s first-day response.

    In dealing with Western businesses, intimidation is China’s policy of first resort. It worked this summer against luxury brands Versace, Givenchy and Coach, which were forced to apologize after issuing T-shirts that didn’t describe Taipei, Hong Kong and Macau as part of China. It also works against American academics, cultural associations and even movie makers. China uses blunt pressure to restrict Americans’ speech, and gets away with it.

    Why not take a hard foul? America could retaliate for the Rockets boycott by revoking visas for visiting Chinese gymnastics teams or orchestras. If China cancels this week’s NBA preseason games scheduled for Shanghai and Shenzhen, USA Basketball could schedule scrimmages in Taiwan.

    One encouraging sign is that the NBA’s kowtowing has drawn harsh criticism from both sides of the political spectrum. “In pursuit of big $$,” Texas Sen. Ted Cruz tweeted, “the @NBA is shamefully retreating.” Mr. Cruz’s 2018 Democratic challenger, Beto O’Rourke, echoed the sentiment: “The only thing the NBA should be apologizing for is their blatant prioritization of profits over human rights. What an embarrassment.”

    The Chinese bullies no doubt chuckle at every obsequious statement from Houston and the NBA, but Americans aren’t laughing. Many are feeling something like the stirrings of nationalism, not taking kindly to being pushed around by a foreign dictatorship. America is waking up to an unpleasant reality: This is how China operates. Now it’s up to the Trump administration to rally Americans around a strategic response. Even if the West can’t change China, we shouldn’t let China change us.

    Mr. Kaufman is an assistant editorial features editor at the Journal.

     
  2. pgabriel

    pgabriel Educated Negro

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    Tilman is a capitalist. Just ask his many haters of his restaurant buyouts.

    The NBA are capitalists. That's why they are in damage control. Thats capitalism
     
    MiddleMan likes this.
  3. Ubiquitin

    Ubiquitin Member
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    Blizzard/Activision basically told the NBA to hold their beer after banning a hearthstone player.
     
    DonnyMost likes this.
  4. KingCheetah

    KingCheetah Atomic Playboy

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    Bro listen, THIS IS CAPITALISM.
     
    Andre0087 likes this.
  5. dachuda86

    dachuda86 Member

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    Tilman and Harden would drink a bucket of Chinese j*zz if it meant an extra dollar. Tilman needs to get out there and ride this thing in the media, and TURN INTO THE SKID! He needs to go hard anti-China, turn into the crisis, and sell his damn book so he can buy a third star and open some more shrimp chains. If Tilman checks this forum, by some chance which he doesnt, still... SHUT UP AND LISTEN. Use this to build your brand!
     
  6. The Real Shady

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    Trump needs to raise tariffs on China for going after Morey.
     
  7. dachuda86

    dachuda86 Member

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    Tilman needs to take a page from Trump's media strategy. Don't get soft. Turn the anger into a media **** storm and ride that wave to fame and fortune. He wants to sell books, so this is a good way. Hell, he can ride this in the future. Every time China screws up, Tilman and Morey can just tweet something, get them all pissed, and get that free media. This would endear the team to more American fans and boost the team's clout and image. This would mean more US dollars and more air time on TV.

    When the captain burns the ship on the beach, IE Morey, there is no turning back. You have to fight!
     
    MiddleMan likes this.
  8. generalthade_03

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    It is time for us to wake up and take a stand against these ChiCom bastards. They’re laughing behind our backs for every apology that we make, they will not stop until we literally bow and scrape in front of these heathens. The whole world needs to ban together and fight this modern day plague of the 21st century. I also urge my fellow Americans and Rocket lovers in this forum by doing our part: support Morey and voice our opinions to the Rockets and the league, drive away these mainland operatives on ClutchFans, we don’t need these commies here polluting us.
     
    dachuda86 likes this.
  9. dachuda86

    dachuda86 Member

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    Let them talk because they will further rally people against them.
     
  10. adoo

    adoo Member

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    you need to venture out of ur cave, u do know that

    Turkey's Endogen easily bullied / manipulated the dotard, over a phone call,
    into withdrawing US troops from Syria, no ?

    soft as tissue​
     
  11. FranchiseBlade

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    I hope Tilman doesn't go soft, which is why he should not take a page out of Trump's strategy. Trump was made to look like Putin's lapdog in Helsinki, got taken advantage of with North Korea, said he won't pursue and doesn't care about our adversary interfering in our elections. He has also and continues to enact policy that helps Putin and the Russians while harming America's allies.

    So Tilman should stand firm not just pretend to stand firm.
     
  12. MiddleMan

    MiddleMan Member

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    Good move, just exit Syria altogether. Afghanistan too. Iraq too, if any troops still left. Let EU fill that void.
     
  13. Ottomaton

    Ottomaton Member
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    Writer should be taken out back and shot for the tired cliche, "Houston, we have a problem" headline.
     
    arkoe, RayRay10 and FranchiseBlade like this.
  14. FranchiseBlade

    Supporting Member

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    Yes!!!!!

    Houston, we have a 'Houston, We Have a Problem' Problem.
     
  15. durvasa

    durvasa Member

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    I just can't take seriously the censorious attitudes of people who face no consequences in their criticisms of China. It's easy to say the NBA should have pulled all of its business from China and taken a hard stand in support of the protesters. That was my initial reaction as well. But when there's billions of dollars at stake, you can't expect them to do that and not first make an effort to mend the relationship.
     
    Hakeemtheking and FranchiseBlade like this.
  16. Os Trigonum

    Os Trigonum Member
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    maybe, maybe not. good article in the WSJ again this morning:

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/nba-vs...ind-the-standoff-11570557671?mod=hp_lead_pos5

    NBA vs. China: The Power Struggle Behind the Standoff
    The basketball league may be more strongly positioned to push back than other U.S. businesses that have run afoul of the Chinese government

    By
    James T. Areddy in Shanghai and
    Ben Cohen in New York
    Updated Oct. 8, 2019 2:30 pm ET

    Does the NBA need China more than China needs the NBA?

    That issue of leverage in a rapidly escalating standoff is likely to shape the next moves in this unlikely geopolitical clash between Beijing and its most popular American sports league. The crisis will come to a head with NBA commissioner Adam Silver’s scheduled visit to Shanghai on Wednesday.

    It isn’t much of a question for most of the foreign companies that play by China’s rules and find themselves balancing their commitment to democratic civil liberties against their pursuit of the market’s billions of dollars. In almost every case of an international business enterprise stoking the authoritarian regime’s ire, the company bowed to Chinese pressure, quickly apologizing in fear of losing access to a powerful economy of 1.4 billion people.

    But the NBA may be more strongly positioned to push back than other U.S. businesses that have run afoul of the Chinese government. It’s the most powerful sports league in the country and plays such an outsize role in local sporting culture that China without the NBA is increasingly unimaginable. Shortly before he became president, in fact, Xi Jinping went to a Lakers game in Los Angeles.

    It was a useful reminder of how much both sides of this dispute rely on each other: China is a huge market for any enterprise, but there’s only one NBA. There are other hotels, airlines and clothing brands. NBA basketball is irreplaceable.

    After an initial statement that was widely judged as too soft, the NBA began to flex some of its power on Tuesday morning when Silver issued a defiant statement and refused to apologize to China.

    “I can’t remember anyone with this kind of money at stake being this willing to not buckle in the face of pressure from Beijing,” said Bill Bishop, who writes the Sinocism newsletter. “It’s the first time that we’ve seen a major U.S. corporation say those kinds of things knowing full well they can be putting their entire China operation at risk.”

    It’s unclear what will happen next after the NBA and China stuck to their positions and the standoff intensified on Tuesday. Chinese state-run television canceled its broadcasts of games between the Los Angeles Lakers and Brooklyn Nets this week and pledged a full review of its NBA programming in response to Silver’s comments on Monday defending freedom of speech.

    Silver returned fire by promising the league would “not put itself in a position of regulating what players, employees and team owners say.”

    The unexpected turn of events this week has already threatened to puncture the NBA’s identity as the most progressive American sports league and spoil the league’s crucial relationship with China. The potential for international growth is one of the reasons the NBA is so bullish on its future. And the country that’s central to this strategy happens to be the one it’s feuding with.

    The NBA’s history in China is more than three decades old. China Central Television struck a deal with the league in 1987 to offer games for free, and their relationship prospered in the 1990s, as the Chicago Bulls were busy winning championships and Michael Jordan was becoming a global icon.

    The NBA has only become more popular in China since then. The league’s official Chinese-language account on Weibo Inc’s short messaging service has more followers than its account on Twitter. Floor seats to the Lakers vs. Nets game on Thursday were being sold for more than $2,500 before they vanished from an Alibaba-backed ticketing site as remnants of the NBA continued to disappear.

    China has 300 million basketball players, nearly as many people as there are in the U.S., and roughly 500 million viewers watched the NBA last season on Tencent Sports, the streaming platform that recently extended its deal with the league for more than $1.5 billion over five years. That deal was a “massive indicator for the perceived value and enormous potential of the China market,” the Shanghai-based sports-research firm Mailman Group wrote in a recent report.

    The league’s carefully plotted strategy over the course of more than 30 years has given the NBA a negotiating gambit that eluded Hollywood studios, Marriott, Gap, Delta Airlines and other fixtures of corporate America that have scrambled to appease China.

    “The NBA has leverage in China, if it works as a united front,” Bishop wrote in his Sinocism newsletter this week. “They cannot and will not shun an entire league. Do you really think those fans are going to be satisfied watching CBA games? There would be a social stability cost to banning the NBA in China.”

    The Friday night tweet by Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey, on a banned platform in China, has suddenly thrust the NBA into the turbulent waters of Sino-American politics. The NBA represents one of the strongest links between the U.S. and China, diplomats and business executives said, and Morey’s tweet about the protests in the semiautonomous city of Hong Kong has called attention to the global powers’ disagreements on trade, cybersecurity and human rights.

    The NBA also found itself on the wrong end of another backlash in the U.S. The league’s initial response to the China pushback was lambasted by American politicians. The NBA’s response managed to unite elected officials on the left and right, from Democratic presidential candidates Elizabeth Warren and Beto O’Rourke to Republican senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, who attacked the league for appearing to value profits over free speech.

    Silver responded on Tuesday: “For those who question our motivations, this is about far more than growing our business.”

    This isn’t the first instance of frosty relations between the NBA and China. CCTV pulled NBA games in 1999 after a U.S.-led coalition of bombers destroyed China’s embassy in Belgrade in what Washington claimed was a mistake. The broadcaster also kept NBA games off the air longer than other forms of entertainment for a period in 2008 following a number of criticisms of China by players.

    But people around the Chinese sports industry say the NBA’s success in China is the result of its sustained effort to cultivate a fan base—and keep government authorities pleased.

    On the cusp of taking power in China in 2012, Xi went to Los Angeles and cheered on Kobe Bryant and the Lakers. He’s remained a fan since then, and he officiated at the FIBA basketball World Cup’s opening ceremony in August. The league also caters to Beijing’s desire to groom a next generation of basketball players, as part of an official policy to build China “into a leading sports nation,” by hosting prospects at academies from eastern Shandong Province to the northwestern region of Xinjiang.

    But there has never been a test of the NBA’s relationship with China like this one, and the uncertainty is only increasing with both sides digging in.

    “We’ll find out over the next few weeks and months whether the idea that the NBA has more leverage in China is true,” Bishop said. “It could be very wrong.”​
     
  17. dachuda86

    dachuda86 Member

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    Soft with our ally? Hardly.
     

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