Tennessee Senator Sends Letter to NBA Asking Why the League Bends Over to the Han Supremacist State of China

On June 30, 2020, Tennessee Senator sent the NBA a letter listing some of the heinous acts of genocide that the Chinese government is committing against ethnic minorities.

In the same letter, Blackburn raised questions about the NBA’s relationship with the Chinese Communist Party.

The Senator complimented the safety measures the NBA implemented by suspending their season, but then proceeded to ask the NBA some incisive questions.

“Your league’s business interests are closely intertwined with Communist China’s estimated $4 billion NBA market,” Blackburn stated in the letter. “While the NBA has worked hard to raise awareness of social issues at home, there is concern that the league has turned a blind eye to human rights abuses committed abroad — even bowing down to pressure last year.”

The Tennessee senator finished off her letter by asking three specific questions that she wanted the NBA to address.

Sports Illustrated reported on Blackburn’s request and obtained a copy of the letter:

As the league reconvenes, further details on its relationship with China are imperative. Please provide a written response to the below inquiries by July 21, 2020.

  1. What are the anticipated financial consequences of China Central Television’s (CCTV) continued ban on the airing of NBA games?

  2. Please continue the scope of the NBA’s relationship with Chinese state-owned enterprise Alibaba.

  3. The NBA reportedly continues to operate a training center Xinjiang, one of the world’s worst humanitarian zones. What steps is the NBA taking to shutter this location?

Blackburn cited the case of Xinjiang, where Uyghur Muslims and “ethnic Kazakhs” are being thrown into concentration camps for “free hospital treatment for the masses with sick thinking.”

Although China has made some changes in the 1980s. it still maintains many vestiges of oriental despotic past and is not on the same wavelength as the West.

American policymakers need to rethink trade relations with China, along with migration polices as well. Astute realpolitik with countries surrounding it (both Koreas, Russia, Japan, and India) can keep in check and prevent it from expanding at will.