Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The NBA Feels a Backlash in China After a Tweet Supporting Hong Kong

wsj.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 146 posts

Re: The NBA Feels a Backlash in China After a Tweet Supporting Hong Kong

#21

Post by Analemma_ »

blondie9x wrote: post #16

Why can't Hong Kong just vote then we can end these protests? The people could vote for a leader who wants closer ties and one who wants more autonomy but let them vote and have a say in the matter. I do not think voting will lead to secession but maybe to a sense of freedom and the ability to influence direction of country.

China will not allow real democracy in Hong Kong under any circumstances. They take this so seriously that when Britain proposed democratic self-rule in HK in the 60's (in keeping with the democratization of their other colonies at the time), China said they would invade immediately if that happened, and the idea was scrapped.

Re: The NBA Feels a Backlash in China After a Tweet Supporting Hong Kong

#24

Post by nradov »

o10449366 wrote: post #12

US companies are increasingly "owned" by the Chinese government through Chinese investment. None of them are willing to risk the financial backlash that would occur if they spoke out against the Chinese government - so they are willing to censor their own platforms and sacrifice their own stakeholders and users to please them.

This is an increasing factor in the US motion picture industry. Major studios are generally unwilling to produce movies that show China or the Chinese Communist Part in a negative light due to the need for financing and distribution.

Re: The NBA Feels a Backlash in China After a Tweet Supporting Hong Kong

#28

Post by throwaway1777 »

saboot wrote: post #7

I am surprisingly conflicted. My strongest urge is to plainly say, screw them. China is a dictatorship, they are actively stomping out freedoms which I very much believe everyone living person had a right to. If they can't stand hearing the truth, fine, no NBA in China. In the back of my mind, I also recognize that isolation and division breeds more isolation and division. No NBA in China means less Western and Easte…

“China doesn’t have that kind of influence in our country”. Yet here we are discussing them.

Re: The NBA Feels a Backlash in China After a Tweet Supporting Hong Kong

#29

Post by Analemma_ »

o10449366 wrote: post #12

US companies are increasingly "owned" by the Chinese government through Chinese investment. None of them are willing to risk the financial backlash that would occur if they spoke out against the Chinese government - so they are willing to censor their own platforms and sacrifice their own stakeholders and users to please them.

If nothing else, we should be thanking China for exposing the bullshit "end of history" promises of neoliberalism and globalization: namely, that more free trade and laissez-faire capitalism will automatically lead to democracy spreading everywhere.

Actually, no: companies are pure amoral profit-seekers, and so if the most important market in the world demands these companies fall in line, then they do, freedom and Western values be damned. Womp womp.

Re: The NBA Feels a Backlash in China After a Tweet Supporting Hong Kong

#30

Post by maxharris »

magicsmoke wrote: post #23
abhigupta wrote: post #5

"If you want to know who rules over you look at who you are not allowed to criticize"

You can criticize China, but then you lose their dollars. So in the end, the thing that rules over you is actually money.

There's a difference between a who and a what.

Also consider: you can ask a PRC official what they think, and you'll get a response. Try to do the same thing to a pile of money? Crickets.

Post reply on HN