Links - 22nd December 2019 (2) (NBA, Blizzard and China)

Gamers boycott Activision Blizzard after tournament winner voices support for Hong Kong - "The gaming community is hitting back at video game company Activision Blizzard (ATVI) after it banned a Hong Kong player known as "Blitzchung" from a tournament. The player, whose real name is Ng Wai Chung, called for a political revolution amid the ongoing Hong Kong protests. Gaming & Esports consultant Rod “Slasher” Breslau says gaming fans won’t back down.“If there’s anyone more passionate than sports fans in the world, it is the gaming community,” Breslau told Yahoo Finance’s YFI PM. “They’re probably the most connected, the most digitally aware of what’s going on. When they are really angry at something, they can definitely put together one of the best boycotts in the world.”Blizzard stripped Ng of his winnings and banned him from competing in next year’s popular Hearthstone tournament for shouting the Hong Kong protest slogan "Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times” during a livestream. Blizzard says this violates the rules of its competition. Blizzard players lashed out on social media, posting pictures of their cancelled subscriptions to Blizzard-owned games like World of Warcraft and Overwatch. Competitor Epic Games took advantage of the boycott, saying it will not penalize its own players for political protests... Mark Kern, a video game designer who led the creation of World of Warcraft took to Twitter to weigh in, saying, "We are in a situation where unlimited Communist money dictates our American values. We censor our games for China, we censor our movies for China. Now, game companies are silencing voices for freedom and democracy."The incident comes as tensions between China and the NBA also escalate over the protests. China’s state media cancelled the league’s fan event slated for today in Shanghai after Houston Rockets’ general manager Daryl Morey tweeted a pro-Hong Kong image. Some mainland China fans are reportedly furious with the NBA over the cancellation, while Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta says Morey “doesn’t speak for the Houston Rockets.”... This is not the first time Chinese tech giant Tencent (TCEHY) has been entangled with the government. It previously built a system to track how long individual gamers in China spend playing League of Legends, according to the Los Angeles Times. The company reportedly locks out gamers who stay on for more than two hours per day amid accusations of its role in video game addiction."

Column: For LeBron James, injustice is threat to justice … except in China - Los Angeles Times - "The tweet from LeBron James was powerful, poignant and seemingly beyond all debate.“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,” he wrote on Jan. 15, 2018, quoting Martin Luther King Jr. on his holiday. “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”... injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere … except in China, because that’s where he sells truckloads of jerseys and shoes... “I don’t want to get into a [verbal] feud with Daryl Morey, but I believe he wasn’t educated on the situation at hand, and he spoke,” James told reporters.Morey wasn’t educated on what exactly? Was James really calling him ignorant for supporting those fighting against the slow invasion of oppression? Or, really, was he saying Morey wasn’t educated on how much money James and other NBA players and teams were losing by alienating the world’s largest basketball market?“So many people could have been harmed not only financially, physically, emotionally, spiritually,” James said of the tweet’s effect. “Yes, we do have freedom of speech, but there can be a lot of negative that comes with that, too.”... note the idea of him bowing at the altar of the almighty Chinese yuan by saying freedom of speech can “be a lot of negative.” This is the same LeBron James who in recent years has become a national icon by freely speaking out against everything from racial inequality to police violence to racist remarks by President Trump? This is the same social leader who drew nationwide support when his free speech led an ignorant TV host to admonish him to “shut up and dribble?” Doesn’t it seem like James just told Daryl Morey to shut up and run a basketball team?... James has long been considered above any of the barbs long directed at the likes of Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods, who were criticized during the height of their careers for remaining quiet on social issues to protect their economic interests.Yet at least in one aspect of this incident, James is behaving exactly like Jordan, whose infamous alleged quote was resurrected Monday with a slight change in wording to fit the priorities of a tarnished king.Chinese buy shoes, too."
At least if you remain quiet on all social issues, you are being consistent

A Behind The Scenes Look At NBA vs. China: Adam Silver Wasn't Sure If He'd Even Be Allowed In China And Then Was Pressured By LeBron To Punish Daryl Morey - "James, to paraphrase, told Silver that he knew that if a player caused the same type of uproar with something he said or tweeted, the player wouldn’t be able to skate on it. There would be some type of repercussion. So, James wanted to know, what was Silver going to do about it in Morey’s case?Silver pushed back, reminding the players that the league never doled out discipline when they publicly criticized President Donald Trump. Morey was exercising the same liberty when he challenged China. Regardless of the financial fallout of one versus the other, that’s not what should matter. Silver might have disliked the ramifications of Morey’s tweet, but he would defend the right to say it."

BBC Radio 4 - From Our Own Correspondent Podcast, The Basketball Row - "[On the NBA] Despite the weeks of raging reaction from China's government and some fans to those seven words, that exhibition game in Shanghai was actually very well attended, a full house in fact. It is hard to imagine that 10s of millions of Chinese basketball fanatics, children who play at break time, middle aged men who started watching recordings of games decades ago, teenagers who stream it on their way to school are all suddenly going to shift their support to another sport""

Charlotte Mather on Twitter - "So now Blizzard have disabled ALL FOUR authentication methods to actively stop people from deleting their accounts. This is beyond disgusting. Spread awareness of this. #BoycottBlizzard"

Thread by @mischief_more - "So apparently Tracer and Soldier 76 are straight in ChinaGood job standing your ground on representation there Blizzard, hope you choke on their money you fake two faced fucks. This legit goes to show that everything that's ever come out of that company about diversity, about representation, about community is all horseshit. Just go back to selling us games and keep your lie hole shut "

Clay Travis on Twitter - "The woke era of the @nba is now officially dead. No player or coach was willing to stand up to a communist dictatorship rife with human rights violations because it threatened their money. That renders all of their political opinions worthless going forward. Absolute cowards.
If you won’t speak up on China I don’t want to see another word written or spoken about how “brave” you are for refusing an invitation to the White House. The @nba players, coaches & execs are complete and total hypocritical frauds."

China-NBA Dispute: Woke Capital Hypocrisy Exposed - "For more than four years — from the opening moments of the rise of so-called woke capital — conservatives have been yelling about the blatant, obvious hypocrisy of the entire activist corporate enterprise. The same companies that imposed or threatened economic sanctions against such states as Indiana, North Carolina, and Georgia after they used the democratic process to pass socially conservative legislation have been happily doing business in murderous nations like China and Saudi Arabia. Even worse, eager to avoid offending a government that can instantly shut off access to its immense market, they’ve granted China an enormous amount of control over their products and operations.It’s an old problem, but thanks to the craven actions of the NBA and Blizzard Entertainment — two companies much-beloved by many American progressives — woke capital hasn’t just alienated conservatives, it’s alienated progressives who actually care about progressive values. The hypocrisy is now too glaring to be ignored..." the next time that Disney or the NBA or any of the other compromised companies takes a “brave” stand against conservatives here at home, millions more Americans will know the truth. Their “principles” stop at the water’s edge. They’ll sell out those same ideals to chase the Chinese yuan."

Thread by @Grummz - "This hurts. But until Blizzard reverses their decision on @blitzchungHS I am giving up playing Classic WoW, which I helped make and helped convince Blizzard to relaunch. There will be no Mark of Kern guild after all.Let me explain why I am #BoycottBlizzard. I am ethnically Chinese. I was born in Taiwan and I lived in Hong Kong for a time. I have done buisiness with China for many years, with serveral gaming companies there.So I think I have a valid perspective here, having been a Team Lead at Blizzard and having grown up in Asia.I have watched China slowly take over as the dominant investing force in gaming and movies over the years. It’s a shame US companies never believed as strongly as China and Asia in investing in games, but this allowed China to have unprecedented influence over our media.Chinese game companies have grown huge not just because of market size, but because the government subsidizes them. They get free land, free offices, and huge infusions of cash.This cash was and is used to do expand and buy up stakes in US gaming companies.I’ve seen firsthand the corruption of Chinese gaming companies, and I was removed from a company I founded (after Blizzard) for refusing to take a 2 million dollar kickback bribe to take an investment from China. This is the first time I’ve ever spoken pubically about it.I’ve also seen how American company reps in China have been offered similar bribes to get licenses for large AAA titles. Not everyone refused like I did.Chinese companies tried to ruin my career with planted press stories. Money is often paid for favorable press in China and some of that money flows here to the US as well.Unfortunately, money talks. China has succeeded in infiltrating all levels of tech, gaming and more.Unfortunately, US and European companies are loath to take risks and invest in game companies legally as much as China was. China remained one of the few places mid tier studios could get funding.So again, China influence grew. I’m sure this is the same for movies as well.But now we are in a situation where unlimited Communist money dictates our American values. We censor our games for China, we censor our movies for China.Now, game companies are silencing voices for freedom and democracy.China is dictating that the world be authoritarian.Of all the companies in the world, Blizzard is the LAST company I ever expected to give in to China’s demands.Blizzard was always about “gamer first” and “don’t be greedy.”At least, it was when I was there.It’s one thing to keep politics out of games, which I am still a proponent of doing. It’s another to unfairly and harshly punish voices that speak out against corruption, against abuses of human rights, and freedom.I take a huge risk by saying this. China monitors all social media and I know this means that we will probably never get an investment from China for my new MMO, and probably never get a license to operate there.But enough is enough. I stand with Hong Kong, and I oppose Blizzard’s obvious and laughably transparent fear of China.It’s time for Blizzard to grow the spine it used to have, and to do what’s right for gamers once again. Gamers, rise up.And yes, this means I will be refusing any deal for Epic exclusivity. The money comes from Tencent. Em8ER will never be an Epic game store exclusive.This might mean we never make a dime, but more is at stake now than just games. A line has to be drawn, and I’m drawing it now."

Will Chamberlain on Twitter - "Google: Won’t work with DoD on Project Maven, will work with China
Greta Thunberg: Lectures America on carbon emissions, won’t even mention China
NBA: Bullies North Carolina over its trans bathroom laws, grovels to China over a Hong Kong tweet There’s a pattern here"

Zedd: "I just Got Permanently Banned from China Because I Liked a South Park Tweet" - "According to Zedd (real name Anton Zaslavski), his ban resulted from him liking a tweet from the South Park account"

'South Park' Banned From Chinese Internet After Critical Episode - "After the "Band in China" episode mocked Hollywood for shaping its content to please the Chinese government, Beijing has responded by deleting all clips, episodes and discussions of the Comedy Central show.South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone probably saw this coming, and to their credit, simply didn't care... on Baidu's Tieba, China's largest online discussion platform, the threads and subthreads related to South Park are nonfunctional. If users manually type in the URL for what was formerly the South Park thread, a message appears saying that, "According to the relevant law and regulation, this section is temporarily not open."... creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone issued a statement with a faux apology about the ban.
"Like the NBA, we welcome the Chinese censors into our homes and into our hearts," the statement reads. "We too love money more than freedom and democracy. Xi doesn't look like Winnie the Pooh at all. Tune into our 300th episode this Wednesday at 10! Long live the great Communist Party of China. May the autumn's sorghum harvest be bountiful. We good now China?"
South Park's "Band in China" episode featured a pair of storylines critical of China. One involves Randy getting caught attempting to sell weed in China and getting sent to a work camp similar to those Beijing has been using in Xinjiang Province to hold as many as a million Chinese Muslims for political indoctrination. (While he's at the work camp, Randy runs into an imprisoned Winnie the Pooh.)A second plot follows Stan, Jimmy, Kenny and Butters forming a metal band, which becomes popular and attracts the attention of a manager who wants to make a film about them. But then the script keeps changing so that the film can safely be distributed in China."

LeBron James' China comments put the NBA's social justice hypocrisy on full display - "the next time LeBron James, or anyone else associated with the NBA, tries to lecture the public about justice, remember what they did when faced with an issue that might cost them something. And remember a quote from Dr. King that you won't find on James' Twitter page:
"Freedom has always been an expensive thing. History is fit testimony to the fact that freedom is rarely gained without sacrifice and self-denial.""

Beijing whips up NBA anger, then winds it down, disappointing Chinese nationalists - Los Angeles Times - "Thousands of Chinese social media users had been afire with nationalistic anger all week, berating the NBA for its soft-pedaled stance on a manager’s tweet supporting protests in Hong Kong.Chinese companies and state media piled on quickly in a united front of patriotic indignation, announcing a boycott and slashed partnerships with the NBA.It felt like the whole country was united, standing up to the foreigners who dared insult China’s national sovereignty. Then a Chinese nationalist took his anger to the streets. He made a red banner that read “Hong Kong belongs to China forever,” planning to unfurl it at the Lakers game in Shenzhen on Friday.But before he even made it to the stadium, local police confiscated the banner, treated him roughly and brought him to a police station, according to his own account on Weibo, a state-censored social media platform similar to Twitter.“What have I done wrong? Is this still China?” the user lamented in a post that has since been deleted. “Are you telling me Chinese people will be oppressed even for loving our country?”... When The Times called Shenzhen police to confirm the incident, they said, “We’re not familiar with this affair” and hung up.Beijing’s softening in its stance toward the NBA was so quick that even Chinese nationalists struggled to keep up, revealing a more complex relationship between Chinese authorities and “1.4 billion Chinese people’s feelings” than at first glance... When Houston Rockets manager Daryl Morey tweeted in support of Hong Kong protests last week, China was already in a fever of patriotic fervor. For months, state censors had replaced regular TV dramas with shows about China’s former humiliation by imperial powers, courageous Communist Party-led revolution, and return to glory under party Chairman Xi Jinping... Hong Kong’s protests are about autonomy and government accountability, not independence, but Chinese state media and officials have framed the protests as a separatist movement orchestrated by foreign powers who want to fragment China to make it weak... It’s a classic Chinese government tactic, Weiss said: to whip up nationalism for domestic purposes, then reel it back when it begins to do more harm than good from the authorities’ perspective.  But the tactic comes at a cost.  “Every time they spin up and wind down nationalism, it generates resentment at the government’s hypocrisy and willingness to crack down on patriotism”... Ironically, many nationalists defend the country against human rights activists, dissidents and protesters who criticize China’s authoritarian system of governance — until they are shut up by the system themselves."

China backs down from pressuring the NBA - "Silver said Beijing had asked the NBA to fire Morey, but the Chinese government, on Friday, Oct. 18, denied ever making that request.Chinese state media CCTV, in a commentary published on Saturday, Oct. 19, further said Silver had “crossed the bottom line” by continuing to defend Morey, adding that he would “face retribution” for defaming China... The NBA’s latest statement is in stark contrast to a strongly-worded Chinese statement released in an attempt to placate Beijing, in which the basketball league condemned Morey for his “inappropriate” remarks. However, the move has since been widely criticised as the NBA was seen to be curtailing employees’ right to free speech for the sake of its commercial interests in China... Beijing’s assertiveness in the matter might eventually backfire.  The dispute between China and the NBA has potentially turned everyday Americans against China, and might be putting the spotlight on a political issue that ordinary sports fans would not otherwise take notice... Also, by coercing foreign firms to submit to Chinese sensitivities, Beijing might face a hard time trying to convince the world of its plans for a “peaceful rise”.After all, enhancing one’s soft power does not typically involve coercing or bullying another to do what one wants."

China’s bid to intimidate the NBA is a great example of how to lose friends and make enemies - "Mao did not squander the opportunity that sports diplomacy presented. But, by picking a fight with the NBA, President Xi Jinping’s government could well have. With Sino-US relations in free fall, this is the last thing China needs.To some extent, China’s response was probably a hubris-induced miscalculation. The government has effortlessly bullied some of the world’s largest and best-known companies into submission, such as Apple, Marriott Internationaland Cathay Pacific Airways. It has used similar tactics on governments too, cutting off high-level exchanges and curtailing business dealings with France, Germany and Britain when they hosted the Dalai Lama.China ended up getting its way in nearly all of these showdowns, with Western actors expressing remorse and seeking to regain favour. But hubris is only part of the story. Chinese officials have strong incentives to demonstrate regime loyalty, even at the expense of strategic objectives. The decision to bully the NBA was more than likely taken by a party apparatchik eager to curry favour.With intimidation hard-wired into the Chinese system, such self-defeating behaviour is likely to continue – and cost the party dearly. The more friends China turns into enemies, the easier it will be for the US to assemble a broad coalition to contain its power and ambitions. At that point, the Chinese bully’s favourite tactic for defending its interests will become even less effective."