LeBron James backlash in US shows hypocrisy

A measured answer to a loaded question. We don't get enough of them these days.

LeBron James of the National Basketball Association's Los Angeles Lakers demonstrated tact and thoughtfulness when he broke his silence on Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey's tweet in support of the Hong Kong protests, calling the move by Morey ill-advised. "I believe he wasn't educated on the situation at hand, and he spoke," James said.

The four-time MVP was probably right; pro-Hong Kong posts on Western social media are something of a bandwagon, and plenty of celebrities have vocalized their approval of the protests without fully comprehending the situation. James was, in essence, saying, "No investigation, no right to speak." Considering the consequences of Morey's hip-fired tweet - an enormous public backlash in China - that seems like pretty sage advice.

Unfortunately, this was not how many in the United States felt about it. Opinion elites were quick to condemn James. They wanted him to come out strongly against China.

But James wasn't playing their game, which meant he had to be attacked. Social media played fast and loose with the facts, and claims about James grew more and more ridiculous - including that his choice of words indicated coaching by those working for or familiar with the Communist Party of China.

Hypocrisy is at work here. The same people who told James and former San Francisco 49ers (a professional US football team) quarterback Colin Kaepernick to "shut up and play" when they took a stand against the killing of black men by police in the United States, are now demanding that athletes speak out, but only if their opinions are the correct ones, of course.

There's no doubt if James or the Houston Rockets' James Harden were more favorable toward the protests, the Western media would be applauding their bravery. But because both players have advised caution and a better understanding of the situation, they're being raked over the coals.

No matter what anyone says, this isn't about freedom of speech. "Free speech" has never really been about the untrammeled right to say or do whatever one wants.

Insinuating James only answered the way he did because he was thinking of money implies James wasn't voicing his own opinion, something that's impossible to know.

There's a widespread assumption that any public figure who doesn't toe the anti-China line has been bought or coached, and this belief has metastasized from the most hawkish wings of the "China expert" community to infect the general public. It's a dangerous tendency. It denies agency to those who might have positive or even neutral impressions of the country, and delegitimizes any dissenting voices without any engagement with those impressions on their merits.

We got a preview of this trend late last year, when economist Jeffrey Sachs published a piece critical of the US position on Chinese technology company Huawei. Sachs was, up to that point, a darling of the media. His market-based answers to the problem of global poverty were just the kind of tepid nonsolutions that neoliberal NGOs and think tanks love. Despite this reputation, journalists, academics and others took turns, leveling wilder and wilder accusations against Sachs - including bribery by the Chinese government - effectively excommunicating him from the ranks of people to be taken seriously. Sachs left social media shortly thereafter; mission accomplished.

Cynicism runs rampant in the US government and in the media. To them, it would be impossible to think or say anything positive about a place they've determined in their vast wisdom is a nightmarish dystopia. It's this same attitude that treats the Chinese government's policies to maximize employment and eradicate poverty as tools to ensure regime loyalty - as if steady employment and a higher quality of life aren't unambiguous good things a government pursues for their own sake.

James shouldn't buckle under pressure from jaded media. They cheer for him when he wins championships, but want him to keep his mouth shut off the court. But that's not his style. Whether denouncing police brutality or encouraging a more nuanced view of a heated political situation, James has never been afraid to challenge conventional wisdom.

He shouldn't start now.

The author is a writer at China Daily.

(China Daily Global 10/21/2019 page1)