Josh Rogin - Chaos Under Heaven

By the time Silver realized that this was not the right PR strategy and delivered a belated, half-hearted statement of support for Morey’s free speech rights, it was too late. Everybody from Mike Pompeo to Ted Cruz to Beto O’Rourke had weighed in to criticize the NBA for choosing its financial bottom line ahead of an American’s basic rights. To this day, the NBA is held up by China hawks as an example of a US company that betrayed American values in pursuit of the Chinese dollar. And the league still lost hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue because they didn’t sufficiently prostrate themselves in Beijing’s eyes.

Lawmakers criticized the NBA for not doing the right thing but largely ignored the fact that the league and the teams were victims of the Chinese government’s tactics. The companies had no idea how to handle political pressure from the CCP, and by the time the scandal had begun, it was too late. The risk had gone up for the NBA because the CCP had become more aggressive. But the league didn’t have any plans to deal with that risk. And the US government only got involved to admonish the NBA, without offering them any real protection or support.

The Chinese government might have thought twice about punishing the NBA if the costs for doing so had been higher. For example, some government officials proposed organizing a full-on NBA ban on playing in China until the retaliation against the Rockets was lifted. The thinking was to put pressure on Chinese authorities to explain to their own people why LeBron James is not coming to China anymore. But absent real government cooperation and more support, the US companies were too weak to stand up to Beijing on their own.

On October 7, the Commerce Department announced it was adding twenty-eight Chinese organizations to its list of banned entities due to their connection to the abuse of ethnic minorities inside China. This action banned US exports to the public security bureaus in Xinjiang and companies related to them. This Commerce Department move fell short of what a lot of officials were pushing, which were full State and Treasury Department sanctions on top CCP officials and a broader range of companies—sanctions that had been sitting on the shelf for many months.

The timing of these sanctions, released in the middle of the NBA scandal, was a coincidence. But it showed that the United States was not completely impotent when it came to standing up for human rights in China. “I consider this to be our response to the NBA bullshit,” one official told me.

“Google Uyghurs”

On October 30, 2019, fifteen young Uyghur activists stood outside the Capital One Arena in Chinatown before the Washington Wizards home opener against the Houston Rockets, chanting for all they were worth. “Google Uyghurs! Free the Uyghurs! Free Hong Kong! Educate LeBron!” They were mocking Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James for defending the Chinese government’s severe punishment of the NBA after Morey tweeted out support for Hong Kong protesters. James said Morey was “either misinformed or not really educated on the situation.”

The activists were mostly American citizens, all American residents—and each and every one of them had a family member in the camps back in Xinjiang; many had more than one. They had just enough people to spell out the words “Google Uyghur” one by one on their T-shirts, a simple plea to their fellow Americans to educate themselves on the plight of eleven million ethnic minorities in China suffering under brutal repression, with over one million of those imprisoned for no reason other than that the CCP seeks to crush their spirit and erase their culture from the face of the earth.

One thing I learned in my visit to Dharamshala to meet the Tibetan exile community is that national identity is a very difficult thing to wipe out, no matter how much technological surveillance and control, forced indoctrination, and cruel physical punishment is applied. Through it all, even after losing their homeland, not only have the Tibetans managed to preserve their language, religion, and culture, they have preserved their movement and passed it on to a second generation to continue their struggle for dignity. That’s the same spirit I saw on the faces of the twentysomething Uyghur activists who invited me to the Wizards game to learn about their struggle and hear their cries for attention and help.

One of the activists, Bahram Sintash from Chantilly, Virginia, has lost contact with his entire family. His father, Qurban Mamut, was a leading Uyghur academic and journalist who had been arrested and then disappeared with zero information or explanation. Mamut once was editor in chief of the CCP-controlled Uyghur journal Xinjiang Civilization. Almost all Uyghur intellectuals, academics, and other civic leaders were rounded up in the early stages of the atrocity.

Sintash’s mother and sister live in the open prison that is Xinjiang. They can leave their house but not without being under constant surveillance. Because of his activism, Sintash hasn’t been able to talk with his mother or sister for over two years. He wanted regular NBA fans who had heard about China’s treatment of the Rockets in retaliation for their manager’s one tweet about Hong Kong to know what else the CCP was capable of.

“I’m feeling in pain every day because my father is in a camp. So other American people should know there are these people called Uyghurs and we need their support,” he told me.

Also in the group was Ferkat Jawdat, from Fairfax, Virginia. Three days after he met with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and protested his mother’s internment, his aunt and uncle back in Xinjiang were also sent to the camps. They were later sentenced to seven- and eight-year prison terms, without any trial whatsoever. The authorities released his mother from the camp under pressure from the State Department, but CCP officials contacted him over WeChat and warned him she would be arrested again if he didn’t shut up.

But Jawdat didn’t shut up. He told me the movement can’t allow the CCP to use their family members as political leverage. Quietly waiting for the world to do something was not working. Millions of people were suffering greatly, including lots of Americans with family members in the camps. Speaking out as much as possible was their only hope.

“It’s not really about my mom anymore; it’s about the entire nation,” said Jawdat. “We ask the US government to stand up to protect American citizens like myself by pressuring the Chinese government to release our family members and the rest of our people.”

Inside the arena, the security guards stood close by as the activists stood silently, lined up with their shirts imploring the other fans to “Google Uyghur.” The arena security demanded they put down their signs because the NBA had a policy of not allowing political signs. But how could asking people to Google something be political? they argued. It’s a call for education, that’s all.

After the game, the group resumed chanting outside the arena on F Street as fans poured out. Coming from the other direction, a Chinese man in a knock-off Nike track suit starting shouting at them in Mandarin. He was calling them traitors and terrorists and telling them to stop smearing China with false accusations. This is not completely uncommon at China-related protests. Some Chinese and Chinese Americans support the government, to be sure. But then the man leaned in to Jawdat specifically, looked him in the eye, and said in Chinese, “Your mom is dead.”

This was not a random counterprotester. This man knew who Jawdat was and threatened him with specific information. He ran away before anyone could find out exactly who he was.

For the Uyghur activists, China’s punishment of the NBA was a good thing. It brought the reality of the CCP and its repression of Uyghurs, Hong Kongers, and everyone else into the mind of the entire country. These young activists were not demoralized. They were encouraged. They were determined. They were trying to use that brief moment of awareness to elevate their cause and maybe even save their family members’ lives.