Chess great Kasparov slams NBA over ignoring China human rights violations

The Chess great was responding to a statement from Adam Silver, the NBA’s commissioner, who said he believes NBA-China relations have improved.

JULY 1, 2020 16:33

Garry Kasparov 224.88 (photo credit: AP) — Garry Kasparov 224.88

(photo credit: AP)

The prominent human rights activist and peerless chess grand master, Garry Kasparov, blasted the US National Basketball Association (NBA) on Tuesday for accommodating human rights violations carried out by the Chinese Communist Party against the Muslim minority Uyghur population.

“The NBA’s concern for human rights stops right at the bank,” Kasparov tweeted. “China has Uyghur concentration camps and is preparing to crush Hong Kong and he talks of ‘mutual respect’? What a joke.”

The NBA's concern for human rights stops right at the bank. China has Uyghur concentration camps and is preparing to crush Hong Kong and he talks of "mutual respect"? What a joke. https://t.co/KuC3WYMlg7
— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) June 30, 2020

In a follow up tweet, Kasparov wrote: "And are the NBA's supposed concerns limited to the US only, despite its claims about its global brand? Can players put 'Justice for Uyghers' or 'Save Hong Kong' or 'Democracy for Turkey; on their custom jerseys?"

The chess great was responding to a statement from Adam Silver, the NBA’s commissioner, who said he believes NBA-China relations have improved, saying “...they have a different view how things have been done, how things should be done. And hopefully, we can find mutual respect for each other.”

Sopan Deb, a journalist with The New York Times who reports on the NBA, tweeted Silver’s remarks, prompting Kasparov’s biting attack.

In October 2019, a number of Chinese businesses pulled the plug on ties with the Houston Rockets after the team’s general manager, Daryl Morey, expressed support for pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong. Morey posted an image on Twitter that read, “Fight for freedom, stand with Hong Kong.”

China’s Communist Party has waged a crackdown on democracy supporters in Hong Kong. The former British colony has sought to remain insulated from the Chinese communist system and its repressive policies against free speech and civil liberties.

Chinese sponsors and advertisers suspended business with the Rockets. The NBA said at that time that Morey’s views “have deeply offended many of our friends and fans in China, which is regrettable.”

China passed a security law permitting it to exercise new powers over Hong Kong. The law went into effect on Tuesday and can impose life sentences on the following offenses: secession, subversion of the central government, terrorism or collusion with foreign forces.