The National Basketball Association has severed ties to a training centre in China’s western Xinjiang region, where Beijing faces growing international condemnation over its…
The National Basketball Association has severed ties to a training centre in China’s western Xinjiang region, where Beijing faces growing international condemnation over its treatment of minorities.
In a letter published online by Senator Marsha Blackburn, the US league also said it had lost « hundreds of millions of dollars » in revenue after Chinese broadcasters dropped its games last year amid a bitter row triggered when a Houston Rockets executive expressed support for Hong Kong pro-democracy protests.
The NBA statements were contained in the letter dated July 21 to Blackburn that was posted on the Tennessee politician’s official Senate webpage on Wednesday.
Signed by NBA Deputy Commissioner Mark Tatum, it was sent in response to questions raised by Blackburn about NBA involvement in Xinjiang, described by the senator as « one of the world’s worst humanitarian zones ».
