In this latest incident, the general manager for the Houston Rockets took to social media to express his support for the courageous protesters in Hong Kong. After China's official condemnation, NBA commissioner Adam Silver reprimanded the GM and apologized to the regime's government.
Silver with the support of wealthy NBA owners put profits over principle. The NBA has lucrative television contracts for its games to be aired in China. The league has long viewed China as its future with billions of potential viewers who buy league's jerseys and other merchandise.
The NBA is not the only entertainment industry to bow to Chinese pressure. China banned movies from Sony and Disney in 1997 after the two studios released films about Tibet. Both entertainment giants groveled before the Communists to earn the right to distribute future films in China.
Chinese bullying of American firms has been a staple of its government. However, it has grown more bellicose under the autocratic rule of President Xi Jinping. The Communist ruler has made it clear that he will curtail freedom of speech even in America as a price for access to China's market.
Since President Nixon's historic 1972 visit to China, globalists have advocated American investment in the Asian nation as a way to open up the Communist regime to democratic changes. This theory has been discredited by decades of Chinese trampling of basic human rights of its citizens.
Under China's leader Xi Jinping, the regime has become increasingly insular, more hostile to democratic principles, militarily threatening and an economic behemoth with world domination as its goal. No serious economist or politician can claim trade has loosened China's oppressive policies.
In spite of growing Chinese antagonism, American companies' investment in the Communist country continues unabated. In 2018, U.S. businesses invested $116.52 billion in China, according to Statista, a global research firm. That is a ten-fold hike from $11.4 billion almost two decades ago in 2000.
Meanwhile, the trade deficit with China has ballooned as the regime ships more goods and equipment to the U.S., while the Communists buy fewer American products. This trade imbalance has resulted in the elimination or displacement of 3.2 million U.S. jobs, estimates the Economic Policy Institute.
Some of the biggest names in Silicon Valley--Apple, Google and Facebook--are heavily invested in China. All have caved at one time to demands from the government to alter its applications to placate the Communists, including deleting information about the recent Hong Kong protests.
Meanwhile, the trade deficit with China has ballooned as the regime ships more goods and equipment to the U.S., while the Communists buy fewer American products. This trade imbalance has resulted in the elimination or displacement of 3.2 million U.S. jobs, estimates the Economic Policy Institute.
Some of the biggest names in Silicon Valley--Apple, Google and Facebook--are heavily invested in China. All have caved at one time to demands from the government to alter its applications to placate the Communists, including deleting information about the recent Hong Kong protests.
Their conduct rankles many Americans, who view their behavior as hypocritical. These same companies have been openly critical of objections by Congress and interest groups about their content. The trio huff they will not cower to attempts to restrict free speech on their platforms.
The high-tech industry and other American firms--GE, Intel, Walmart, Starbucks, Boeing, GM--are complicit in the regime's dynamic global economic growth by spending lavishly on Chinese facilities and hiring local workers. Meanwhile, China continues to steal American technology.
Beijing has made no secret of its ambition to become the global leader in key emerging industries, including information technology, alternative energy, biotechnology, alternative-fuel cars and high-end equipment manufacturing. The regime will back Chinese firms with generous state funding.
China's subsidy of these sectors will put American firms at a competitive disadvantage. If you doubt China's ability to overtake America, you haven't been paying attention. In 2011, Apple was the dominant smartphone in China. Today, the top three brands, all Chinese, own a 71% market share.
China's long range plan is for its home-grown industries to be become not only the country's market leaders, but to supplant American brands worldwide. Recent research by groups such as McKinsey document that Chinese consumers are increasingly showing a preference for China-made goods.
To secure its economic superiority, China has launched a multi-trillion-dollar project to revive the ancient "Silk Road," which could redefine global trade and signal the tipping point for a new Asian century. The scope of the project is typical of the country's audacious economic dreams.
The regime already has invested billions in new infrastructure projects such as roads, railways, ports and maritime corridors that will span more than 60 countries and 4.4 billion people, covering up to 40 percent of the global GDP. The plan includes linking Asia, Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
This unprecedented scale of the project should worry American firms. China's aim is to end dependence on American goods, innovation and technology. While it extends its economic power, China's blueprint includes exporting its brand of Communism worldwide.
American businesses may one day be forced to abandon the Chinese market, either because of dwindling profits or because the government decides to limit foreign investment. China has employed this tactic in decades past. There is no certainty it will not do it again.
The NBA, businesses, movie studios and others that appease China in the name of profits may rue the day they ignored the Communist nation's geopolitical and economic aspirations. Not only will their profits be harmed, but they will have lost something more valuable: the American public's trust.
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