(10-07-2019, 12:41 PM)SleepingHero Wrote:(10-07-2019, 10:37 AM)fifteenth Wrote: Tough issue since the communist government in China has been brutal and oppressive for decades AND British treatment of China (including the Opium Wars and taking of Hong Kong) was deplorable. The Nets Owner's comments that the Opium Wars and taking of Hong Kong by Britain contributed to China's isolationism and paranoia about foreign intervention is valid. It's not just B.S. That of course doesn't make China's brutality and oppression right. But nothing wrong with acknowledging that this is complicated stuff.I acknowledge that the history for China complicates the issue and plays a role in their paranoia as you put it (same reason why many americans are inherently distrusting of Muslim men and women on planes after 9/11)
However, Tsai's statement is automatically taking the position that the Chinese government is right in this issue, and that the people of HK are separatists bent on dividing the mainland, and given their history it is understandable why the people of China is reacting so strongly against the people of Hong Kong as Tsai said.
Yet Tsai conveniently forgets that Hong Kong was given rights when the UK gave control of Hong Kong back to China. Rights that have been slowly stripped away under their Communist regime. Not to mention the countless human rights violations and IP crimes China has committed, Tsai also loves to omit in his history lesson the millions of innocent civilians that have been slaughtered under the current Chinese regime in the name of censorship and ideological culling.
A lot can be debated about whether it's moral to do business with China given their government is antithetical to American principles, and whether it was right to open China up in the 70's to allow them to become this powerhouse. But its too late to now and their economy is tied to ours. It's a delicate situation to navigate given the amount of $$$$ at stake here for the NBA. However, I draw a line when a communist country thinks it can strong arm an american citizen into submission for exercising his right to comment on an issue.
Anyone defending the Chinese government over their actions in this case (Silver, Tilman, Tsai) in their support for censorship can in fact suck it.
The Chinese government is brutal and oppressive and they hold the Chinese people captive, even if they've given them a bit more economic freedom over the last couple of decades. I have to go ahead and make my position clear in order to type something reasonable about Tsai's tweet otherwise I'll get accused of defending the Chinese government too!
Here's the deal: I don't think Tsai defended the Chinese government. He just said that the response of the Chinese government and the people of China made sense and tried to explain why China got mad at the Rockets. I've reread it to check myself, but the only thing that Tsai said that could be "taking the Government's side" is using the work "separatists". But he did so to explain China's thinking.
I don't know anything about the guy. Maybe he supports China's government. If he does, I'd have to disagree with him. But that's not really what the tweet was about.
BTW, I think this is a pretty good article about the protests and China's responses:
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/pro-de...-hong-kong