Chinese Firms Tencent, Vivo, and CCTV Suspend Ties With the NBA Over Hong Kong Tweet (techcrunch.com) 101
Smartphone maker Vivo, broadcaster CCTV, and internet giant Tencent said today they are suspending all cooperation with the National Basketball Association, becoming the latest Chinese firms to cut ties with the league after a tweet from a Houston Rockets executive supporting Hong Kong's pro-democracy protesters offended many in the world's most populous nation. From a report: Vivo, which is a key sponsor for the upcoming exhibition games to be played in Shanghai and Shenzhen this week, said in a statement on Chinese social networking platform Weibo, that it was "dissatisfied" with Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey's views on Hong Kong. In a tweet over the weekend, Morey voiced his support for protesters in Hong Kong. He said, "Fight for freedom, stand with Hong Kong." Even as he quickly moved to delete the tweet and the NBA attempted to smoothen the dialogue, Morey's views had offended many in China, which maintains a low tolerance for criticism of its political system. In a statement, the NBA said it was "regrettable" that Morey's views had "deeply offended many of our friends and fans in China." This stance from the NBA, which has grown accustomed to seeing its star players speak freely and criticize anyone they wish including the U.S. president Donald Trump, in turn, offended many.
Earlier today, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said it was also suspending broadcasts of the league's games to be played in China. China remains a key strategic nation for the NBA. According to official figures, more than 600 million viewers in China watched the NBA content during the 2017-18 season. The league's five-year partnership with Chinese tech giant Tencent for digital streaming rights of matches is reported to be worth $1.5 billion. In a statement issued today, Tencent Sports said it was "temporarily suspending" the pre-season broadcast arrangements.
Earlier today, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said it was also suspending broadcasts of the league's games to be played in China. China remains a key strategic nation for the NBA. According to official figures, more than 600 million viewers in China watched the NBA content during the 2017-18 season. The league's five-year partnership with Chinese tech giant Tencent for digital streaming rights of matches is reported to be worth $1.5 billion. In a statement issued today, Tencent Sports said it was "temporarily suspending" the pre-season broadcast arrangements.
South Park (Score:5, Insightful)
IMHO, if the NBA doesn't support free speech then NBA fans should boycott games. Let them decide if they're going to support American or Chinese values.
Re: South Park (Score:3)
Re: South Park (Score:4, Interesting)
You're right, but a lot of their power is just marketing bullshit.
Professional basketball is kind of a joke to watch, it's all low effort until the last 5 minutes. But people have been convinced its somehow good basketball.
You can pay about $10 around here and see any of a number of D-III college teams play and actually watch some good, hard played games. Half the time you can watch the same two schools women's team play first in a double header for the same admission. Hell, it's often more exciting watching a couple of well-matched high school or 8th grade club teams than snooze-fest pro team regular season games. And none of this includes the vast amount of D-I college ball.
Admittedly the pro game is more interesting as you wade into the playoffs. But overall the pros are all about marketing 90% of the time.
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Capitalists and conservatism is nowhere near what you describe (you describe anarchism or Ayn Rand libertarianism). Small government regulation (local level, such as your township or county) is okay with most business folk, the problem is when you concentrate that power in the state and federal government, you get broad, overarching regulation that simultaneously affect everybody but serve nobody.
Case in point is the EPA. You get government regulation that continue hammering on things like mercury or ozone
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How would a competitor to the NBA even begin? The network effect ensures that popular things stay popular, and new things face a tough uphill climb. No government agency is forbidding competition in the professional basketball market. That's purely the free market, operating as normal. That's what happens with lassez faire capitalism, that the capitalists don't want you to understand: capitalists capture and control any previously free market they find, dominating it with money that requires no government c
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I'm sure you can explain, with examples, how the government has handed a monopoly to the NBA.
I'm not sure this is what the OP has in mind, but one way a government grants a quasi-monopoly status to entities such as the NBA is by means of intellectual property laws. In an actual, non-existent, pure laissez-faire system, there would be no legal impediments to broadcasting NBA games, so player-related image-rights, no NBA or team-owned trademarks, and no geographical ownership of RF spectrum ranges, since all of those would be seen as the government interfering with the self-regulation of the free mar
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There is no quasi-monopoly status. It's just a normal, non government issued, natural monopoly. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
None of the things you mention are standing in the way of another basketball league starting up. It's not as if you need to steal Arby's trademarks to get into selling roast beef.
Also, even in lassez faire systems, contracts are still enforced. This isn't pure anarchism we are talking about, is it? Libertarians believe contracts are the root of lassez faire systems.
Finally, in a l
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It's not as if you need to steal Arby's trademarks to get into selling roast beef.
In a pure laissez-faire system there is no such thing as "stealing" Arby's trademarks because there is no such thing as a trademark, or even such a thing as "an Arby". There are only individuals with full individual responsibilities. Whether those individuals work together or alone, they're just that, individuals. Therefore, there is no such thing as corporate personhood or limited liability. Sure, you could adopt a fantasy name to make it easier for people to refer to your business, but that'd be a mere co
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But hey, I'm sure you can explain, with examples, how the government has handed a monopoly to the NBA. You definitely did not pull that out of Ayn Rand's decaying asshole.
The government has long granted the "big 4" sports leagues (MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL) + the NCAA exemption from anti-trust regulation. Essentially, these "nonprofit" corporate entities are operating as officially sanctioned cartels. They are also exempt from a bunch of labor law and regulation.
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Pfft, show me one company that HAS been broken up, or even investigated for anti-trust activities in the past thirty years. All you are saying here is that the government isn't going to break up Big Sports. How is that different from any other company? It's not as if the government is prohibiting others from forming sports organizations, which is what the original post seemed to be claiming. The NBA and other sports monopolies are natural, not government granted monopolies. But of course, libertarians must
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I am afraid it will be the opposite. People here will self-censor to take that sweet Chinese money. It is actually what we are already doing by turning a blind eye to the Gulf states Muslim hate propaganda machine and the terrorism that follows. Even the Russians want to sell them weapons.
We will maybe defend free speech as long as it will actually be nearly free. If expensive, not so much.
Re:South Park (Score:4, Insightful)
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....boycotts will have less and less power over the next few decades.
They have almost no power right now.
Here's the thing- the Chinese government thinks in 10- and 20-year plans, and they don't have to answer to their citizens. They have all the time in the world and they know it. It's not like President Xi is going to be voted out of office- he's there for life. The fact is that Xi played Trump like a cheap fiddle, just like Kim Jong Un did.
In other words, they can simply snooze and wait this out while at the same time forging new economic and trade-based relationships wit
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The Chinese are never going to have the same market power to foreign companies unless they open up and actually become more capitalistic and democratic. But their dictator isn't going to allow that.
China is a hair away from mass famine and requires massive imports of both food and oil to survive. If the EU realized, like Japan and India have, the massive pressure they could leverage on China, they wouldn't be doing what they are doing in Hong Kong, Africa and European markets. Just a few manufacturers are m
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Why not keep the stance even if it hurts economically? Money is not the sole virtue in the world. Many US companies would do well to abandon China and take the hit. It's possibly the problem with mega corporations that feel they must be in every market of the world.
Re:South Park (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, seemingly nearly twice as many people watched the NBA in China as there are people in the US in total (watching NBA or otherwise). I fear they will be thinking about that when picking which values to follow...
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Then change the name of the league to the NCBA ...
At least then you will be honest.
Re:South Park (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, seemingly nearly twice as many people watched the NBA in China as there are people in the US in total (watching NBA or otherwise). I fear they will be thinking about that when picking which values to follow...
They can fuck off to China, then, and good riddance. All professional sports seem to be sleazy AF in one way or another, and usually a whole bunch of ways.
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You're saying nearly 600 million Chinese people watched the NBA? Somehow I find that hard to believe without a citation.
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600 million viewers
I'd think that number means the sum of people watching games across all games, so that one person watching a game, then that same person watching another game, counts as two viewers.
There are 82 games in a NBA season. Assuming, quite unrealistically, that the number of viewers is equally distributed among them all, and that every who watched one game watched the other 81, that'd mean a minimum of 7.32 million basketball fans in China. On the other extreme, if every single game was watched by entirely differ
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Dont bring Communist laws to the free West.
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The president of our country is sticking it in china's ass.
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Trump is rightfully fucking over China.
Fight for freedom, stand with Hong Kong (Score:3)
Now china will ban slashdot.
Re:Fight for freedom, stand with Hong Kong (Score:5, Insightful)
Hopefully none of that gets classified as hate speech though. Then we'd have to take it down ourselves.
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"I think we can still talk about them putting Uighurs in camps though because China already knows that everyone else already knows but that no one really cares."
God, I know. It's pathetic how little outrage there is over this in the West.
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Don't forget Free Tibet with every purchase of a Taiwan or Hong Kong!
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As usual, South Park nailed things pretty good last week.
You know it. Also, Xi does not look like Winnie the Pooh at all.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/07... [cnn.com]
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IMHO, if the NBA doesn't support free speech then NBA fans should boycott games.
Oh noes, cancel culture! You should pay them money to see the games even if they side with the Chinese, because supporting a brutal dictatorial regime isn't nearly as bad as cancelling the NBA!
Is hypocrisy an American value? (Score:2)
Let them decide if they're going to support American or Chinese values.
I'm quite sure freedom of speech is no longer an American value [pbs.org].
Even private talks are not safe in this country [wikipedia.org] anymore.
From this incident, the only thing we can conclude is that hypocrisy is the American value.
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It's also a traditionally British value. So it logically is an American value; who do you think owned the US when it was formed? Who (quite violently in many if not most cases) took it away from its previous residents, both native and based on other European cultures that more deeply integrated with the native population?
Re: South Park (Score:2)
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Let them decide if they're going to support American or Chinese values.
or murdering of hong kong citizens
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As usual, South Park nailed things pretty good last week.
IMHO, if the NBA doesn't support free speech then NBA fans should boycott games. Let them decide if they're going to support American or Chinese values.
The NBA should stick to its core competency of making money. That GM should have been fired for fucking with the revenue stream.
Basketball is an intricate, complex sport requiring extraordinary skills on the court. That's what's for sale. Appropriate behaviour off the court by way of virtue signaling visiting hospitals, sponsoring kid camps and selling merch generate good will, which adds value to the business model.
The NBA is not a political platform. The GM can keep his fucking mouth shut.
CCTV changed name a long while ago (Score:2)
Is now called CGTN...
Just an usefull reminder.
I was wrong. RE:CCTV changed name a long while ago (Score:2)
I will correct myself. Is branded CGTN internationaly, is still branded CCTV in china, and the corporate entity is also CCTV. Sorry for my mistake.
secret police mentality (Score:5, Insightful)
Morey's views had offended many in China
Many in mainland China actually are not offended, they just say they are. Until you've visited a country with single party rule it's hard to understand how people develop very high levels of cognitive dissonance. The scene in 1984 when the protagonist is yelling at the screen along with the rest of the crowd even though he knows better was spot on.
Re:secret police mentality (Score:4, Interesting)
The Unknown Citizen
W. H. Auden - 1907-1973
(To JS/07 M 378
This Marble Monument
Is Erected by the State)
He was found by the Bureau of Statistics to be
One against whom there was no official complaint,
And all the reports on his conduct agree
That, in the modern sense of an old-fashioned word, he was a saint,
For in everything he did he served the Greater Community.
Except for the War till the day he retired
He worked in a factory and never got fired,
But satisfied his employers, Fudge Motors Inc.
Yet he wasn't a scab or odd in his views,
For his Union reports that he paid his dues,
(Our report on his Union shows it was sound)
And our Social Psychology workers found
That he was popular with his mates and liked a drink.
The Press are convinced that he bought a paper every day
And that his reactions to advertisements were normal in every way.
Policies taken out in his name prove that he was fully insured,
And his Health-card shows he was once in hospital but left it cured.
Both Producers Research and High-Grade Living declare
He was fully sensible to the advantages of the Instalment Plan
And had everything necessary to the Modern Man,
A phonograph, a radio, a car and a frigidaire.
Our researchers into Public Opinion are content
That he held the proper opinions for the time of year;
When there was peace, he was for peace: when there was war, he went.
He was married and added five children to the population,
Which our Eugenist says was the right number for a parent of his generation.
And our teachers report that he never interfered with their education.
Was he free? Was he happy? The question is absurd:
Had anything been wrong, we should certainly have heard.
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"I'm offended by the tibetan flag" said the Chinaman as he murdered his newborn daughter...
while wearing a counterfeit Beijing Rockets NBA jersey he ordered off Alibaba for $3.50 US using his new iPlnone !!.
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You'd beat up mainland Chinese JP Morgan execs. if they did to you what they're doing to China.
Frankly, I"m shocked Hong Kong just doesn't start a fire and send it Shenzen's way.
Its just they're finally realizing how much the British screwed them over in the handoff.
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doing to china. sigh. Doing to Hong Kong. I need some coffee.
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The Chinese aren't stupid. They know their government is in the wrong. They see it every day of their life.
Most of them are secretly rooting for the protestors. They're just not willing to stand up and have their head instantly chopped off.
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Until you've visited a country with single party rule
And a social media app and payment system wrapped into one that spies on you, a social credit system, and as many surveillance cameras as citizens...
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Until you've visited a country with single party rule it's hard to understand how people develop very high levels of cognitive dissonance.
I have, and it's creepy/scary.
Vietnam, for example, has many cities wired with speakers everywhere. A couple of times a day they crackle to life, play some martial music, and then an announcer reads some 'news'. It's pure propaganda but no one bats an eyelash.
After a couple of minutes of 'news' the martial music plays again, the speakers turn off with another crackle of static, and everyone carries on.
Creepy as fuck. I never got used to it.
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Should be interesting to see (Score:3)
if they stick to their guns now that it is costing them money or it is just when it is without consequences that they will allow free speech. :D
Re:Should be interesting to see (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Should be interesting to see (Score:4, Insightful)
People don't realize how expensive it is to have free speech. Between the ability and the consequences, and everything in between. To many, almost any cost is worth it.
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Yes, you are right! Free speech worth $2 billion [wikipedia.org].
the nba players union needs to say we will support (Score:2)
the nba players union needs to say we will support players speaking out will really hurt china and the NBA really can do something like fine a player for saying something.
Tegridy (Score:3)
What is their position though, I wonder? (Score:2)
UFC crowned 1st Chinese champ (Score:2)
Heh (Score:5, Insightful)
>has grown accustomed to seeing its star players speak freely and criticize anyone they wish including the U.S. president Donald Trump, in turn, offended many.
What is he saying? The Chinese can criticize Trump too! Reminds me of an old Reagan joke.
An American and a Soviet were talking about differences between the Soviet Union and the United States. The American says, I have freedom because I can walk into the Presidents office and slam my fist on the table and proclaim; "Mr. President, I don't like the way you are running things and the way you handle the Soviet Union is crap.".
The Soviet replied, I can do that too! I can walk into the General Secretary's office and slam my fist on the table and yell; "I do not like the way the US President is running things and his actions toward the Soviet Union is crap.".
How things never change. Maybe not the eloquence of an actor as the president but both are hilarious.
Ideal (Score:4, Interesting)
Here's my philosophy:
1. Companies shouldn't be political. They shouldn't be for one side or another - their job is to produce products for everybody.
2. People can do whatever they want on their own time. They can support whatever cause they like, whatever, as long as it's not tied to the company they work for.
If I see a company taking a strong political stance, even if it's one I agree with, I tend to not use that company anymore. If I see a company punishing it's employees for something they said on their own time, I tend to not use that company anymore.
Of course, this policy isn't absolute (absolutes are for crazy people) but I find it works as a personal philosophy about 90% of the time.
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Companies shouldn't be political.
You think Vivo, CCTV and Tencent care about this tweet? Hell no, they're companies looking to make money. This is China yanking the chain like they do on all businesses that are Chinese, operates in the Chinese market or sell Chinese products. If you or anyone related to you says anything bad about China they'll excommunicate you like a sect. They'll stonewall you and say we're offended and we'll remain offended until we get an apology. And they will win that waiting game, because Trump won't compensate the
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If I see a company taking a strong political stance
Simply conducting business one way or the other is a political stance. Manufacture in China? Hire H1B workers? Creating a Code of Conduct?
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The only tenable position here is the one which is self-sustainable. A philosophy where you only do business with companies which completely agree with your politics, leaves you with very few
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I can't tell if by "company" you mean the Houston Rockets, or the Chinese companies suspending ties with the NBA over this political row. One merely stated a political opinion. The others are taking an action based on their political opinion. So it should be obvious which is taking the stronger political stance.
The NBA manager making a political statement on his personal twitter account - just fine.
The NBA trying to do "damage control" for what he said - stupid. Their response should have been "he can say whatever he wants on his own time."
The Chinese companies pulling support from the NBA over this - borderline insanity. Nobody should be doing business with those companies.
My goal is to get companies out of politics. You don't do this by politicizing commerce. The flip side of that is you have to then be OK with
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In my opinion, I think it's best to divorce corporations from the opinions of
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I think the question becomes to what extent are your wishes for an apolitical company imposed on the people who work for that company?
Zero. The point is that the employees and officers are free to support and campaign for whatever they want on their own time, as long as the company/team/whatever isn't involved.
Kneel, baby, kneel (Score:1, Insightful)
I'd like to see Mr. Kaepernick — and other heroes made famous [cnbc.com], wealthy [newsweek.com], and influential [cbssports.com] by protesting injustices and outright atrocities supposedly committed by America — defend Hong Kong.
Or Uighurs — who "volunterely" enter the "re-education" camps to have their "thoughts transformed" [bbc.com].
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Just tell Kaepernick that the Chinese are forcing the Uighurs to fly the Betsy Ross flag...
Top-down bullying (Score:5, Insightful)
It's a very effective strategy: always, relentlessly and every time, bully the people at the top of large organisations and get them to use their power to bully people below them until everyone says only what you want.
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The people at the top aren't being bullied because they can be bought. They want that Chinese money; as soon as the taps are shut off, they fall right into line. It's the job of the people at the top to bully those below them.
It's a classic management structure for disparate populations that goes back into ancient times. Give the leaders a taste of the good life, then there's little chance that they will risk upsetting their benefactors.
fuck china (Score:3)
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LOL.
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China is asshole (Score:2)
Thank you, brave Hong-Kong protester, for that timeless quote.
China is SJWs run amok (Score:2, Troll)
China is what happens when SJWs take over.
Those SJWs happen to be Communist Party Officials, and instead of public shaming and getting fired you go to the gulag/re-eduation camp.
It might look OK on the surface, but deviate and the hammer comes out.
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There is a Japanese saying: The nail that sticks out gets hammered down.
While it is Japanese it also applies to China.
Original thought is extremely "dangerous" to communist China as the brainwashed Chinese people might get the idea to revolt and realize the government is created BY the people -- not the other way around.
The way to stop Stupid Juvenile Whiners is to tell them NO. The Chinese don't (yet) have the wisdom (or courage) to do that.
One of the problems with China is that the people fully believe t
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Don't poke the Bear (Score:2)
Not even Winnie-the-Pooh.
Interesting contrast (Score:1)
Many? (Score:3)
offended many in the world's most populous nation
Worded like it offended millions and millions... when it just offended a few of the big babies running the government.
This whole thread is offensive. (Score:4, Insightful)
after a tweet from a Houston Rockets executive supporting Hong Kong's pro-democracy protesters offended many in the world's most populous nation
It offended no one. It stepped on the toes of a dictatorship so powerful its captured citizens kneeled reflexively. That's not the same thing.
It does no honesty to couch it in terms of "offense", the method of control over speech in the west.
Not to defend chinam buuuut... (Score:2)
I am aware that especially in the USA, free speech is seen as an absolute - whereas in most countries there are some limits to them (which I think is ok). A famous example is that inciting violence or denying the Holocaust is illegal in Germany.
So, what should Blizzard have done if the guy would have given a Hitler salute during the interview? I personally wouldn't have minded if he got