House and Senate Republicans, along with a basketball star, are demanding answers from the NBA about its financial relationship with the Chinese Communist Party following an “in-your-face” display of CCP soft power in the nation’s capital.
Following reporting from The Spectator, eight congressmen and four senators wrote to NBA commissioner Adam Silver to express “grave concerns about Chinese Communist Party propaganda being broadcasted and promoted at National Basketball Association games.” The Republicans’ letter, led by Representative Troy Nehls and endorsed by NBA center-turned human rights activist Enes Kanter Freedom, is an attempt to get to the bottom of how China was able to take over a Washington Wizards game and broadcast a speech from its foreign minister to those in attendance.
“I’m proud to have led a bicameral letter to the Commissioner of the NBA to address recently recorded messages of Communist Chinese propaganda inside an NBA arena in Washington, DC,” Nehls told me. The former sheriff had no kind words to say about the NBA. “By continuing to appease the CCP, it emboldens them to further profit off continued human rights abuse and gives them a platform to exert their influence in our nation’s capital. It’s a national security threat, plain and simple.”
The letter was prompted by reporting in The Spectator, which detailed how Qin Gang, China’s US ambassador-turned foreign minister, gave his first ever public address in his new role at a Washington Wizards game, where he wished his captive audience a happy Chinese New Year in a video address subsequently blasted out by CCP outlets. In addition to Qin’s speech, the arena itself was transformed into a major soft power coup for China.
As The Spectator reported at the time, “during the timeouts in the game, the Chinese Embassy boasted that ‘the staff tossed many Chinese zodiac rabbits to the audience and triggered a ‘scramble’… The panda mascots, played by Chinese diplomats’ children, made an impressive appearance on the court, winning loud applause and cheers from the audience.’”
The Republicans are indicating that this letter will actually have teeth to it, now that they are in a meaningful oversight role on the House side.
Representative Burgess Owens, a Super Bowl-winning former NFL player, told me that “Republicans will get to the bottom of this incident and root out the CCP’s malign and dangerous influence… why would prominent officials from the CCP be given a platform to spread their anti-democratic, anti-American propaganda at one of the most celebrated American sporting events in our nation’s capital?”
To that end, the Republicans in both chambers of Congress have three demands from Silver: they want to know how much the CCP paid to have its new foreign minister deliver a speech at Capital One Arena; whether the NBA “willingly broadcast CCP propaganda or was this a favor conducted by the NBA”; and “how does the NBA intend to denounce the serious human rights abuses of religious and ethnic groups in China, and support players who speak out against the CCP?”
The last question in particular likely resonates with Kanter Freedom, who many believe was blacklisted by the NBA following his frequent criticisms of the league’s cozy financial relationship with China. During his NBA career, he frequently took aim at China with his sneakers, wearing messages like “Free Hong Kong,” “Hypocrite Nike,” “Free China” and “Made with slave labor” on them. In one instance, Kanter Freedom was playing against LeBron James, and he donned footwear with a “James-like figure being crowned by Chinese president Xi Jinping.”
Qin’s January speech that the Republicans are focusing on was just the latest in a series of video addresses he’s given at Capital One Arena. In one instance, he showed up on the arena’s jumbotron during a Washington Capitals hockey game to promote Beijing’s Winter Olympics, even though the United States was mounting a diplomatic boycott of the games at the time.
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Representative Ryan Zinke, a former Navy SEAL, also signed the letter. “Playing a PRC promo from their minister of foreign affairs at an NBA game is just about as in-your-face as it gets, he told me. Basketball fans deserve to know if they are signing up to be a theater audience for the CCP and the NBA should be transparent in their relationships with the Chinese.”
Given the frequency with which Qin appears on the court and on the jumbotron at Capital One Arena, it’s likely only a matter of time before he’s back. The next time, however, Congress will be watching.
