Former NBA player Enes Kanter Freedom huddled with members of the Republican Study Committee to discuss China’s humanitarian abuses against Uyghur Muslims and the influence the country has on key industries in the United States at the Capitol on Wednesday.
The former NBA center, who is Muslim, came to Washington to support policy changes he believes are needed to crack down on human rights violations abroad, discussing what actions can be taken to help stop the Chinese Communist Party’s abuse of ethnic and religious minorities.
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The leaders of the CCP have been accused of imprisoning up to 3 million Uyghurs in “internment camps, with reports emerging of forced sterilizations, abortions, and genocide being carried out.
Kanter Freedom, who previously played for the Boston Celtics and is now a free agent after being cut from the Houston Rockets over what he says is his political activism, has been vocal in his criticisms of the sports industry’s business dealings with China. He has highlighted that NBA owners have roughly a combined $10 billion invested in Chinese ventures despite their knowledge of the CCP’s actions.
After fielding questions from the group of conservatives, Kanter Freedom told the Washington Examiner he believes more needs to be done from a legislative standpoint to limit China’s influence in an array of areas.
“My one message was, I think we have to just hold this dictatorship accountable. You know, I think we need to put more pressure on dictatorships around the world — obviously, if you look at the world right now, the worst one is obviously China,” he said. “They asked me a lot of questions about the relationship between the NBA and China because if you look at the numbers, I believe 40 NBA owners got tied up $10 billion in China.”
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Kanter Freedom added that he’s encouraged by legislation being led by RSC Chairman Jim Banks (R-IN) aimed at closing loopholes used by certain companies to skirt restrictions on working with companies that use Uyghur labor by inflicting sanctions.
“We need some solid actions like bills, but that’s what I was really excited about when Congressman Banks told me about his two new bills that are coming out,” he said.
Kanter Freedom, who backed a boycott of the Beijing Olympics, told reporters he believes there needs to be less of a focus from athletes on profit and more of an effort to focus on what’s right.
“Right before the Olympics, actually, I tried to reach out to so many Olympians, so many athletes. Unfortunately, they were also scared too. They care too much about their endorsement deals,” Kanter Freedom said. “They care too much about their next paycheck, and I even tried to have a conversation with some of my teammates and some of the people in the NBA. Well, they said, ‘I think what you’re doing is so amazing, we love you, we support you, but we just cannot do that out loud.”
In addition to meeting with the RSC, he also briefly met with Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).
According to two sources who attended the RSC lunch, when asked by Banks about his meeting with the speaker: “He said the interaction with Pelosi was very brief, about 25-30 seconds, and that she grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him back and forth and tried to give him tips on how to play basketball.”
