NBA player Enes Kanter on Wednesday denounced Chinese President Xi Jinping as a “brutal dictator” and declared that “Tibet belongs to the Tibetan people” and risked reigniting tensions between Beijing and the US basketball league. Tibet has fluctuated for centuries between independence and control from China, which claims it “peacefully liberated” the region in 1951 and brought infrastructure and education to the previously underdeveloped region.
But human rights campaigners and exiles have accused China of cultural degradation through religious repression, torture, forced sterilization and forced re-education.
“Dear brutal dictator XI Jinping and the Chinese government. Tibet belongs to the Tibetan people!” Boston Celtics center Kanter said in a message posted on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
“I stand with my Tibetan brothers and sisters, and I support their call for freedom,” added the 29-year-old, next to a photo of sneakers emblazoned with Tibetan iconography and the slogan “Free Tibet”.
The message was accompanied by a three-minute video of Kantar wearing a Dalai Lama T-shirt and criticizing Chinese rule in the region.
Kanter wore the political sneakers on the sidelines of the Celtics’ 138-134 double-overtime loss to the New York Knicks on Wednesday night, a game in which he did not appear.
Global brands, including the NBA, have been plagued by PR crises in recent years and have faced financial backlash in China after touching on politically sensitive issues.
In 2019, Chinese broadcasters dropped the league after then-Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey tweeted a message of support for pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong.
But the NBA is hugely popular in China, where it is the most popular sports league.
‘Ridiculous allegations’
By Thursday in China, tech giant Tencent’s sports site showed upcoming Celtics games pulled from its livestream roster.
Game coverage was downgraded to text and photos only, a status currently applied to the Philadelphia 76ers, where Morey is now president.
A handful of confused fans took to Tencent’s website and Weibo page to ask why the streams were pulled.
Asked about Kanter’s comments, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said: “His ridiculous accusation is not even worth refuting.”
“We welcome all friends from all countries to visit Tibet with an impartial and objective stance,” Wang Wenbin said at a regular press conference.
Swiss-born and raised in Turkey, Kanter is a devout Muslim and a vocal advocate of various political causes.
He has previously lashed out at the Turkish government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whom he has called a “dictator”.
In a 2020 opinion piece for the Boston Globe, he wrote: “Thousands of innocent people remain in Turkish prisons paying the price for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s contempt for human rights.”
Kanter rejoined the Celtics in August, having played for them a few years earlier.
In over 700 NBA appearances, he also turned out for Utah, Oklahoma City, New York and Portland.
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