Nonprofit Organization Calls For NBA, Adam Silver To Admit Connection To Chinese Communist Party
The America First Legal Foundation is starting a petition to label the NBA as a source of Chinese propaganda after deliberately bending the knee to China's communist government in several instances.
America First Legal — founded by Stephen Miller, former political advisor to Donald Trump — is pressuring the DOJ to "register as agents of the Chinese Communist Party," as reported by National Review.
NBA Called Out For Appeasing China
Miller wrote a letter to Matthew G. Olsen, assistant attorney general for national security, requesting that the NBA's ties to China be transparent.
“The evidence is that Adam Silver and the National Basketball Association knowingly and intentionally advance the political and propaganda interests of the Chinese Communist Party and its instrumentalities in exchange for market access to the People’s Republic of China and billions of dollars in revenue.”
The foundation's letter to the DOJ cited two instances where the NBA hosted and featured a high-ranking Chinese official — Chinese minister of foreign affairs, Qin Gang — at separate CNY events.
The league had a history of celebrating Chinese New Year, but hosting a Chinese political figure, who is a vocal opponent of the U.S., was too far.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver speaks during a news conference prior to an NBA game. Photo via Getty.
NBA, Adam Silver Are Afraid of Losing Chinese Market
With a growing basketball market in a country of 1.4 billion people, the NBA has openly appeased China to keep the financial pipeline from the CCP flowing.
The NBA went into panic mode in 2019 when a team exec openly supported Hong Kong and the CCP responded by dropping NBA streams within China.
China's connection to the NBA has also painted the league hypocritical for decrying and issuing political statements against the United States.
In 2019, the Golden State Warriors opted out of visiting the White House following their NBA championship as a political statement against former president Trump.
Woke Golden State Warriors Coach Steve Kerr (Photo by Todd Kirkland/Getty Images)
NBA players, coaches and Commissioner Silver have openly called out racism as a prevalent issue in America but remained silent when asked about China's human rights violations.
Warriors owner, Chamath Palihapitiya, has been on record claiming that "nobody cares" within the NBA about the protests against the ongoing genocide of Uyghur Muslims in China's Xinjiang region.
Enes Kanter Freedom Is Prime Example Of CCP Influence
One critic of the CCP's hold on the NBA is Enes Kanter Freedom. The ex-NBA center highlighted the Uyghur genocide during his time in the Association and was practically blackballed out of the league.
While Kanter Freedom has noted that players will privately reach out to support his cause against the NBA, no other figure has stood up to China. Kanter had to give up professional basketball before reaching 30 because the NBA couldn't stomach criticism against China.
Enes Kanter Freedom (Photo by Jared Siskin/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)
Twelve Republican lawmakers submitted a letter calling out the NBA for its interests that put China as a greater priority than the U.S.
“While a message like may be perceived as an innocent gesture at face value, it is a blatant exertion of soft power at a venue in the epicenter of our nation’s capital and gives the CCP a platform to disseminate their messaging to a national audience,” the lawmakers' letter read. “The NBA only further appeases the CCP and emboldens them to further humans rights abuses and threaten our national security.”
Despite the pushback, Commissioner Silver has often defended China.
“Virtually every American uses products manufactured in China,” Silver previously said. “And in many cases, they are the products that we are most reliant on. Our computers, our phones, our clothes. Our shoes, our kids’ toys. So then the question becomes why is the N.B.A. being singled out as the one company that should now boycott China?”
(Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images)