Vice President Mike Pence said Thursday that the NBA had knuckled under to pressure from Beijing regarding its human rights abuses in the wake of Hong Kong protests. Pence said China was trying to “export censorship” to the U.S. and shamed the basketball league and its corporate sponsors for giving in, saying it was “not just wrong, it’s un-American.”
“Some of the NBA’s biggest players and owners, who routinely exercise their freedom to criticize this country, lose their voices when it comes to the freedom and rights of the people of China,” Pence said in a speech in Washington, D.C., at the Wilson Center.
“In siding with the Chinese Communist Party and silencing free speech, the NBA is acting like a wholly owned subsidiary of that authoritarian regime. A progressive corporate culture that willfully ignores human rights is not progressive, it is repressive,” Pence said.
The vice president slammed corporations associated with the NBA as well. “Nike promotes itself as a so-called ‘social justice champion.’ When it comes to Hong Kong, it prefers checking its social conscience at the door,” he said. “Nike stores in China actually removed their Houston Rockets merchandise from their shelves to join the Chinese government in protest against the Rocket’s general manager’s seven-word tweet, which read, ‘Fight for freedom stand with Hong Kong.'”
Pence credited the White House’s linking of the ongoing trade negotiations with getting Beijing to ease back on Hong Kong. “President Trump has repeatedly made it clear that it would be much harder for us to trade deal if the authorities resort to the use of violence against protesters in Hong Kong. Since then, I’m pleased to observe that Hong Kong authorities have withdrawn the extradition bill that sparked the protests in the first place and Beijing has shown some restraint.”
