Is defection a possibility? If there is another thread about this, its not my fault because the search function is disabled. But anyway... I heard he is loyal to the government and everything. But once he comes over here, and sees America, and doesn't want to give up half his salary, won't he just **** it and stay here? There can't be that big of a political fallout over this. He's a ball player, its not that significant. Right?
I don't understand what the big deal is with 50% taxes.....most NBA players are already forking over close to that number b/t federal, state, and local income taxes anyways...
He'll most likely still have family over there. They could be imprisoned or mysteriously disappear. After all, China is a communist run government & tends to do whatever it wants, to it's people.
I dont know the laws pertaining to defection, but I'm guessing the US government would not want him to defect either. Defecting from Cuba, Korea, most Middle Eastern countries is different then defecting from China. US really wants to and needs to maintain good relations with the Chinese government. I'm guessing that granting a huge Chinese celebrity safe haven in the US would slightly piss off their government. Of course all of this is my opinion so I could be completely wrong.
He'll be forking over that & the Chinese governments requirements as well. Let's see, 50% + 50% = DAMN!!! Since both governments will be taking all of his money, will he qualify for government assistance, even though he will make several million $'s? Who gets their's first, Uncle Sam or China?
Any chinese citizen can easily immigrates to US as long as US INS accepts him. According current US immgration policy, Ming can easily immigrates to US. Accutually there are some chinese cerleberitis, including some former sports players, allready immigrated to US. But IMO, this is not so called defection. They are still proud of being chinese. and they visited China frequently and still got warm welcom. Time is changed. More and more people moved around world for all kinds of reasons. Every year many chinese immigrate to US and other countries. And at the same time, there are also many chinese went back china from US. One of my friend immigrated to US from China and became US citizen many years ago. He got laid off last year because economic downturn. He went back to Hong Kong, found a job, and got higher salary. Would you call this defection? There are many chinese sports player, some are among the tops in their fields, play games aroud the world. They play for the foreign clubs and also play international competion for china. Never heard of someone chooses defection. Actually several chinese women soccer players now play in US. Why there are so much hype on Ming? This is just a game, why so much politics?
Apparently, one of David Faulk's people tried to get him to 'defect' last year. Ming was so pissed off that he publicly stated through the NBA league office, that he would not at any time ever use Faulk as an agent.
Defection = apply for political asylum. That's totally unnecessary for Yao. I don't think he would ever consider that. Immigration = quite an option for him if he desires and things change over time. He could get "fast-track" status. There is a check and balance in everything. If the Chinese government/CBA/Shanghai Sharks pushes too hard, he has such options especially in a few years. Such options may keep the Chinese government/CBA/Shanghai Sharks not pushing too hard. I assume Hakeem is a US citizen already.
He'd have to be if he wanted to play in the 96 Dream Team. I think he became a citizen the year before.
