Peaceful NBA game-goers holding signs in protest of China’s systematic abuse of Uyghurs and NBA’s ties to China were ousted from Monday’s night’s Pelicans vs. Wizards basketball game at Washington, D.C’s Capitol One Arena.
In an exclusive interview with LifeSiteNews, human rights activist and pro-life film producer Jason Jones, who was among Monday’s demonstrators, said he was inspired by NBA player Enes Kanter’s protest of Uyghur human rights abuses by China. Kanter expresses his opposition through shoe-inscribed messages such as “Free Uyghur,” “Free China,” and “Stop Genocide, Torture, Rape, Slave Labor,” a reference to the different kinds of atrocities committed by Chinese government recruits against Uyghurs in slave labor camps.
Kanter plays for the Boston Celtics, so “China’s response to this was to ban the Celtics from China,” said Jones. “So that gave me a great idea: let’s just troll China and NBA stadiums across the country with huge banners that say ‘Free the Uyghur,’ forcing them to cut the broadcast.”
The American Spectator noted that “broadcasts of the Boston Celtics game have been scrubbed from Chinese channels” because of Kanter’s messaging in support of targeted minorities in China. “Live feeds are cut and ticketholders are ejected for showing any apparel or messaging that could insult the Chinese Communist Party,” the Spectator reported.
Jones said that the news outlet has also reported that Kanter’s messaging and Jones’ organized peaceful protests “have cost the NBA $200 million already” because of canceled broadcasts.
Jones told LifeSiteNews that his organization brought Tibetans and Uyghur activists to the “nosebleed” section of Monday’s game protest “with huge banners and flags so people all over the stadium could see” their “Free Uyghur” sign and flags of the Uyghur homeland East Turkestan. They also brought a group positioned in the VIP section on the floor to hold up another large “Free Uyghur” sign.
“And of course then the police and the security asked us to leave,” Jones said. This was despite the fact that the protestors were not causing a disturbance, but merely holding signs for a cause, as many NBA game-goers have for years.
He later added that “what’s exciting” is that “the fans are always on our side, 100% percent.” He gave the example of a man selling Budweiser beer at Monday’s game, who exclaimed as they were being thrown out, “Why are you kicking them out, for telling the truth?”
Salih Hudayar, the current prime minister of East Turkestan in Exile, was among those kicked out of the arena. Hudayar called their removal an “attempt by the NBA to appease China.”
Jones says that just as the “mission” of his Vulnerable People Project “is to turn stumbling blocks into stepping stones,” he sees the scandals presented by the NBA and Nike’s ties to China, the upcoming Beijing Olympics, and even Pope Francis’s silence on Chinese genocide as opportunities to alert the world to the Uyghur genocide.
Full story at LifeSiteNews.
I’d tell that inconsiderate jerk to put down his sign and sit down so people behind him can see the game. People are there to watch the game, not look at that jerk and his sign. Can’t basketball just be basketball? Why does politics have to intrude on everything. It’s making life miserable.
“Can’t basketball just be basketball?” No. As a certain woman once said, “you will be made to care”
“Why does politics have to intrude on everything. It’s making life miserable.” You may not be interested in politics, but politics is interested in you. said by some famous guy,
The NBA has not been family orientated for decades now. I stopped buying most of their products when one basketball player bragged about how many women he had gone to bed with — around 2000 — and another got AIDES from cheating on his wife. I thought what kind of man brags about such a thing, and he had to be lying anyway. Football, at least the half time, is just as bad. Baseball seems to keep a fairly clean image most of the time. Bread and circuses, bread and circuses brought the pagan Roman Empire down, and it can do the same for ours.
I did not mean to denigrate all professional athletes. There are many fine ones out there who try to do the right things, and others have learned their lessons and cleaned up their acts. Those I commend. People can and often do change for the better.
I like this-reminds me of the Yippies.
Never have really cared about the NBA and I still can’t figure out how they’re still solvent (maybe they’re not) but every other non NBA endorsed ‘protest’ has been met in exactly the same way…luckily…else wise no one would ever hear about them….When the NBA did throw their pathetic BLM tantrum, most people yawned and/or turned off the TV.
Guess I’m not impressed one way or the other by this story.
Very effective way to bring attention to the slave labor occurring in CCP Land, in connection with Big Tech here and others who produce products there, or make money from their oppression, like Nike and the NBA. Important to include other serious violations, such as the persecution and jailing of religious leaders and democracy advocates, the funding of the mining of minerals such as lithium and cobalt used to make cell phones and laptops and electric car batteries, and the violent militias who seek to control this trade in Central Africa, all with consent and cooperation from Big Tech companies here, and the silence of the American Bishops, whose voice could make a tremendous difference.
I gave up the NBA with its left leaning politics long ago..
Go Jason….you are a true hero for the vulnerable people of the world. Anyone who follows your work knows it. God bless you and Mary keep you and your family safe.