CHINA vs the NBA.
- Thread starter yamers
- Start date
Can someone explain to me or link me to an explanation of Hong Kong and China.
Daryl Morey, GM of the Rockets, tweeted something in favor of the Hong Kong democracy protests. China immediately announced it was pulling the plug on all things Rockets related. NBA forced Morey to recant, and issued a statement in support of China. Disgraceful.
UK had a lease on Hong Kong for 99 years from 1898, then as part of that deal returned it to China in 1997. There was, however, a deal that says that Hong Kong would remain capitalist, and without significant interference from the Chinese legal system (probably with some exceptions, and also lots of other agreements) for 50 years. The people of Hong Kong are now seeing this agreement threatened, and they protest. China considers all foreign interference with any domestic issue as a pretty serious insult, so they go mad if other countries act up.
(I'm from Norway, the Nobel peace prize was awarded to a Chinese dissident some years back, they were pissed as hell for years and years.)
candrew
Well-Known Member
To us maybe. Tencent Holdings, which is at least partially, if not fully, owned and operated by the Chinese Government is going to lose money in this as well.
So they put enforcing authoritarianism over profit while we put profit over paying merely lip service to freedom.
Unsettling if you think about it.
So you see, there's this stuff called opium...
checkbookdoc
Well-Known Member
I am disappointed that Locke deleted his twitter comments. He must have deleted them because of 1) pressure from the Jazz, and 2) concern about being blacklisted from other podcasts/media. In other words, he was worried about money. I don't blame Locke, he has a family to take care of and a job he loves. It does sour me on his past (and any future) political/social takes, although he does seem to try and avoid them for the most part.
I wish the Jazz would just come out and say, we support human rights everywhere and for that reason stand with the HK protestors. It might piss off DM (I think he is the only player with much to lose due to the shoe contract), but it would endear them to lots of other people. Also, if the Jazz are serious about fighting the reputation of being racist, why not be the first (and maybe only) team to take the obvious stance that 80% of NBA fans agree with?
I wish the Jazz would just come out and say, we support human rights everywhere and for that reason stand with the HK protestors. It might piss off DM (I think he is the only player with much to lose due to the shoe contract), but it would endear them to lots of other people. Also, if the Jazz are serious about fighting the reputation of being racist, why not be the first (and maybe only) team to take the obvious stance that 80% of NBA fans agree with?
I don't fault anyone for trying to avoid controversy and stay out of issues and simply take care of their family, but those who have been very vocal politically over the past number of years, acting like they're making such a huge sacrifice to speak up, now have the opportunity to, literally, put their money where their mouth is, and so far they're silent. What will be ballsy is when they return back to 'courageously' tweeting about American politics, as if they really have something to lose by doing so, and doing that in light of the elephant in the room.
Basically, Hong Kong was British colony returned to China in 1997. During the time as a colony, Hong Kong operated under British law. When it came time to be returned to China, HKers obviously didn't want to just become part of China. So a deal was made operate under a 'one country, two systems' method going forward. Hong Kong has a mini constitution that details the powers the rights people enjoy under Hong Kong, and the degree of interference China can have with Hong Kong. So our current system has separation of powers (administrative, judicial, and legislative branches), unlike China. Chinese national laws do not apply to us because we have our own legal system. We also have our own government (which answers to China), and no censorship on the internet etc.
Within the mini constitution, there is a provision that says things would remain relatively unchanged for 50 years (until 2047). However, a lot of Hong Kong people believe that China is starting to exert more and more power on Hong Kong, in breach of the promise made prior to the handover.
The current fiasco comes from a now-withdrawn extradition bill that would have meant China can extradite people from, despite no extradition treaty being made with them. People were afraid of China claiming people committed crimes then extraditing them to the lawless and corrupt China, so over 1 million people took the streets multiple times to protest (total population of HK around 7+ million). The dumbass leader of Hong Kong (called the Chief Executive) refused to withdraw the bill for a long *** time, and made people really pissed off, and this ended up bringing up a lot more deep rooted anger people had against the government, leading to today.
Source: me, from Hong Kong