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Enes Kanter #11 of the Boston Celtics handles the ball towards the Portland Path Blazers at The Area at ESPN Broad World Of Sports activities Complicated on August 02, 2020 in Lake Buena Vista, Florida.
Mike Ehrmann | Getty Pictures Sport | Getty Pictures
GUANGZHOU, China — The Nationwide Basketball Affiliation may as soon as once more face a backlash in China after Boston Celtics participant Enes Kanter tweeted a video in assist of independence for Tibet.
Not lengthy after the tweet on Wednesday, highlights from the Celtics’ recreation towards the Knicks had been made unavailable on the Tencent Sports activities app. Upcoming Celtics video games additionally seem like unavailable for stay stream.
China-based Tencent declined to remark when contacted by CNBC.
In a video posted on Twitter, Kanter referred to as Chinese language President Xi Jinping a “brutal dictator” and mentioned he helps Tibetan folks’s “trigger for freedom.” The NBA star, who has commented on political points earlier than, repeated the phrase “free Tibet” thrice whereas carrying a t-shirt with the Dalai Lama on it.
“Underneath the Chinese language authorities’s brutal rule, Tibetan peoples’ primary rights and freedoms are non-existent,” Kanter mentioned. China’s Ministry of International Affairs was not instantly accessible for remark.
Chinese language communist troops took management over Tibet in 1950. China has held that Tibet has lengthy been a part of its territory and that the navy motion was a part of a peaceable liberation of the area. China has denounced the present Dalai Lama, who Buddhists see as their non secular chief and who’s presently in exile in India, as a separatist. The Dalai Lama has denied he’s a separatist.
In June final 12 months, impartial United Nations specialists “raised their considerations concerning a variety of problems with grave concern” together with the “collective repression of the inhabitants, particularly non secular and ethnic minorities, in Xinjiang and Tibet.”
China has repeatedly mentioned that points associated to Tibet, the northwest area of Xinjiang, and Hong Kong aren’t human rights points. China maintains that these are “inner affairs” and different international locations mustn’t intervene.
The Boston Celtics and NBA China weren’t instantly accessible for remark when contacted by CNBC.
On Chinese language Twitter-like service Weibo, one Boston Celtics fan account with 615,000 followers mentioned they might now not submit in regards to the workforce.
The NBA, the preferred U.S. sports activities league in China, has confronted backlash earlier than over delicate points.
In 2019, the then-Houston Rockets Basic Supervisor Daryl Morey despatched a tweet in assist of anti-government protests in Hong Kong. He later apologized. However the incident prompted a significant fallout together with broadcasters suspending the exhibiting of Rockets video games and business companions chopping ties with the workforce.
Kanter has beforehand been important of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and the federal government reportedly revoked his Turkish passport in 2017.
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