China the powerful

The soft power of China is infamously tremendous and often times amazing to witness. Yesterday I woke up to a tweet of wrestler-turned-actor John Cena apologizing in Chinese on video. There’s many dimension to how wild that is. First, John Cena speaks mandarin quite decently! As a speaker of three languages, I am a big fan of learning a second language. A white guy from Boston learning Chinese is just not something you expect to see. Good for John.

Second, Cena is apologizing to the people of mainland China for referring to Taiwan as a separate country. The faux pas happened during the current press tour for the ninth Fast and Furious movie (I can’t wait to see that in an actual theatre). Amongst the many things you absolutely cannot say vis a vis China, calling Taiwan a country is up there near the top. So of course Cena had to say sorry to the Chinese people, via the Sina Weibo social network.

Because third, had he not apologized, Cena is risking the financial future of anything he is attached to. The Fast and Furious franchise does huge money in China. Imagine if Cena’s slip-up cause the film to be banned there. There goes nine-figures of revenue right out the window. The movie studio cannot have that, obviously, which is why Cena had to quickly release a mea culpa, in what looks akin to a hostage video.

Just another day of doing business in the People’s Republic. If corporations want those numerous Chinese dollars, they must answer to ruling party. Boycotts and bans are swift. as the likes of H&M and Adidas found out recently.

On a similar vein, you won’t ever find me speaking negatively about China. I have many relatives living over there that I very much would like to visit often. Last thing I want to do, is say or write something careless and then get banned from entering my country of birth. Good thing websites hosted on Squarespace are blocked by the great firewall anyways…

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It’s about that time.

The soft power of China part 4

You know, I don’t expect LeBron James to actually stand up against China; he’s got too much vested interest with the country, what with his immense relationship with Nike, and his inroads into Hollywood production. So I wasn’t surprised yesterday to hear LeBron take a neutral position - like many players have - on the matter that started with a tweet by Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey in support of the Hong Kong protest movement.

However, I was very surprised and somewhat shocked that LeBron went further than staking a neutral stance: he threw Daryl Morey under the bus! James said Morey was “misinformed”, that freedom of speech has “ramifications”, and Morey was being selfish for not considering the consequences his actions carry downstream. This is wild stuff coming from a player who stood with Colin Kaepernick in his protests during the national anthem at NFL games.

I guess in relation to China, no one or entity on earth has enough “fuck you” money. LeBron, one of the richest NBA player in history, certainly doesn’t seem to.

Of course, the populace on twitter descended upon LeBron’s blatant hypocrisy, with Boston Celtics player Enes Canter - himself suffering the consequences of speaking out against the Turkish authoritarian regime - putting it best by tacitly pointing out James’ quoting of MLK, yet not living up to those standards. It appears to me an entirely self-inflicted wound: a quick “no comment” from LeBron would have sufficed. For sure there will still be naysayers, but the subsequent furor would be much less and likely subside once basketball season starts. In actually criticizing the substance of Morey’s tweet, James seems to have crossed a line, and the public is not having it.

I believe athletes - or anybody - don’t owe anyone a responsibility to take a position or have an opinion on absolutely everything. If an NBA player doesn’t want to speak on the China situation, that’s completely okay. It’s also okay if a player wants to support China; he just have to deal with the ramifications here in America.

This whole episode is far from over.

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iPhone 11 Pro’s night mode is freaking awesome. The power of computation to overcome laws of physics is incredible.

The soft power of China part 2

In a surprising (for me) turn of events, NBA commissioner Adam Silver released a further statement late yesterday reaffirming Daryl Morey’s right to free expression, and that the league will not suppress or regulate the speech of its teams and employees. Later on in an interview, Silver recognizes that expression has consequences, but the values of the NBA are non-negotiable.

For a league that’s been pilloried by both sides of the political spectrum for kowtowing to China and seemingly choosing the profitable bottom line over American ideals, the statement by Silver puts a strong rebuttal to those criticisms. Prominent figures within the NBA and its media partners in America have been dancing around the issue to avoid further stoking the ire of the Chinese, so it is good to see the commissioner himself be so unequivocal.

Of course, as Silver himself stated, there are consequences. Apparently China remains unappeased with the situation, and Silver’s remarks is seen from their perspective as defiance. CCTV, the broadcast partner for the preseason games played in China - and de-facto state TV for the communist party, have announced they will no longer be showing the games; more Chinese companies have severed commercial ties with the league. It appears China will not accept any less from the NBA than a sincere apology and the strongest rebuke and condemnation of Daryl Morey: make him persona non grata.

This whole incident, stemming from a simple tweet of solidarity with the Hong Kong people by Morey, is far from over. It’ll be intriguing to see how Silver and the NBA thread the fine needle: uphold the bedrock values of an American company, while repair the damage with China, a country with an obvious different set of values.

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The amount of non-Type R Civics I’ve seen with the Type R wing fitted is far too high.