Decenter Journal – Read away from the center! Resist indoctrination!
“Just so you know, we’re on the good side with y’all. We do not want this war [the Iraq Invasion], this violence. And we’re ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas.” This was a line Dixie Chick, a popular country music band, said on stage during a concert in London back in 2003, when George W. Bush was the POTUS, and 9-11 was on its second anniversary. The sentiment for fighting terrorism was at its highest point that any criticism of the impending Iraq War caused extreme backlash from the American public. The band has yet recovered after 16 years, although nowadays the Iraq War is believed to be a scam and fraud. However, it does not change a bit of the public sentiment toward the band even now.
The lesson learned. The incident was not about whether the Iraq War is right or wrong. It was not about if Dixie Chick has the right to say the statement they wanted to say. They definitely have the right. It is uncontestable as they never go to jail by making that statement. .You will not go to jail by hurting people’s feelings, but those who were hurt will take their own actions to express their anger. Like in the case of Dixie Chick in which their works had been pretty much eroded since then.
The Houston Rockets and NBA incident:
The incident started when the statement of “Fight for freedom, stand with Hong Kong,” was tweeted by Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey. Social media in China swarmed with anger over the ignorant tweet made by Morey. The Chinese authorities, based on the pouring of the negative responses of the people, asked the NBA to repudiate the statement of Morey. Adam Silver, NBA Commissioner, responded to the incident with “The NBA will not put itself in a position of regulating what players, employees and team owners say or will not say.” China responded by canceling all broadcasting of NBA on TV, and major sales channels, including Alibaba’s Taobao, removed all Houston Rockets merchandises. Mainstream media lean on the discourse that China is using its economic power to silence opposition views.
One has to understand the months-long Hong Kong protest in order to made sense of the anger pouring out within the Chinese community, including in Hong Kong. Mainstream media portrayed the protest as an anti-totalitarian, pro-democracy protest. In reality, not only the protest has been full of violence, by itself totalitarian in nature, but it is also one that tries to kill diversity, as they have been beating up brutally those who voice their view that contradicts the protestors. In short, they are separatists, and worse still, they are the minority in the Hong Kong population. In fact, the freedom of speech quickly eroded in Hong Kong because of the protestors’ are violently casting terror over those who dare to speak the opposite. It is not difficult to understand the anger of the Chinese population over Morey and Silver’s statement.
Morey, Silver, and NBA are free to express whatever they wanted to say. As long as they have the option to make any statement they want, freedom of speech still exists. But we cannot say that China silenced them. They can always say what they want, hold up their value [whatever it is], but they cannot expect China continues to feed profit to those who hurt the feeling of the Chinese people.
It is the same as the American public stopped broadcasting the songs of Dixie Chick because they were hurt. The American public has the right to express their anger over Dixie Chick, so does the Chinese people over Morey and Silver.
To know more about Hong Kong Protest:
Care to understand the Chinese sensitivity on the Rockets/NBA incident: