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Opinion | Why China insists foreign organisations, like the NBA, kowtow to its nationalistic red lines
- China’s response to an NBA team manager’s tweet reveals the Communist Party’s skill in whipping up nationalist sentiment while containing the risks of doing so
- The damage to China’s international reputation is offset by the domestic benefits
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After Daryl Morey, general manager of the NBA’s Houston Rockets, tweeted his support of protesters in Hong Kong, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman immediately responded with a sharp reprimand, CCTV suspended its broadcasts of preseason games and companies were quick to put their deals with the NBA on hold.
The official backlash and public outrage directed at Morey might appear to some to be hysterical and juvenile, but through the hype over the issue, China has gained leverage in reshaping the discussion on democracy for Hong Kong and beyond.
The Chinese media expected the NBA, like many other foreign companies that had previously breached China’s political red lines, to capitulate out of fear of losing a market that is a potential gold mine.
This submission could then be used to critique American corporate ethics and, more broadly, the corrupt nature of Western profiteering capitalists. The NBA affair allows for a strategic attack on Western capitalism, democracy and values such as freedom of speech.
Yet the biggest gains from the NBA fracas are domestic. As Jessica Chen Weiss, a professor at Cornell University and an expert on Chinese nationalism, told The New York Times, “For all of [Chinese President] Xi’s rhetoric about preserving globalisation and open commerce, shoring up domestic nationalism is the focus of Xi’s international strategy.”
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