Hong Kong Freedom Activists to LeBron: ‘Who Are You Trying to Protect? by Frances Martell for Breibart
GNN Note – It appears “King James” is not so kingly in Hong Kong!
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NBA player LeBron James’ condemnation of Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey on Monday for supporting human rights in China has triggered a widespread backlash in Hong Kong, whose pro-freedom movement Morey endorsed.
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James complained that Morey “wasn’t educated” when he posted a message on Twitter reading “fight for freedom, stand with Hong Kong.” He later attempted to clarify on Twitter that he did not mean Morey was uneducated in China’s long history as one of the world’s most prolific human rights abusers. Rather, Morey was uneducated in how speaking up on behalf of an anti-authoritarian movement could be a personal inconvenience to James.
James and his team, the Los Angeles Lakers, were in China last week amid the communist backlash to Morey’s statement. James also has several personal business ties to the Chinese communist state.
As a dictatorship run through the Communist Party, the state controls the Chinese economy and no business is done without going through party leadership, either officially or through de facto means.
LeBron James is worth at least $450 million, according to a 2018 Forbes report, in part due to business with the Communist Party.
Supporters of the Hong Kong pro-democracy movement expressed disappointment with James online. According to the Hollywood Reporter, which cataloged reactions on the Hong Kong forum LIHKG, users speculated on what interest James would have in defending the Communist Party of China, which is responsible for the systematic rape, torture, murder, indoctrination, and enslavement of between 1 to 3 million people in concentration camps, most of its victims members of the Muslim Uyghur ethnic minority.
“Has he been brainwashed by the Chinese Communist Party’s fake news or has he been bought?” a user asked. Another lamented that an American “would not cherish the precious freedom of speech they [Americans] have.”
