On October 4, Daryl Morey, manager of the Houston Rockets, posted a tweet that included the words “Fight for Freedom, Stand with Hong Kong.” Afterwards, China severed several partnerships they had with the Rockets in retaliation, leading Morey to delete his tweet and apologize for it and also prompting NBA commissioner Adam Silver to issue a statement declaring that the NBA does not regulate the speech of its players. Since then, however, the NBA has made attempts to appease China. So what’s the current state of the NBA’s relationship with China and does the NBA have a moral responsibility to denounce China? Micah Watson, professor of political science at Calvin University, joins Acton staff to discuss. Afterwards, Robert Doar, president and Morgridge scholar at AEI, comes onto the show to speak about effective solutions to poverty in America. He also shares how he came to be deeply interested in battling poverty, recalling the career of his late father John Doar who did heroic work in the U.S. Justice Department fighting racial discrimination and working for voting rights during the 1960s and ’70s.
Check out additional resources for this episode:
Read: “NBA abandons Hong Kong for Communist rule,” by Dan Hugger
Read: “Corporate America’s bet on China,” by Jordan Ballor
Game Over? Meet the Chinese NBA fans calling time out over Daryl Morey’s Hong Kong tweet
Watch: Hongkongers protest at NBA game in New York
The NBA may have just thrown Hong Kong’s protesters a new lifeline
How China gets American companies to parrot its propaganda
How One Tweet Turned Pro-China Trolls Against the NBA
Watch: Robert Doar on poverty in America
Listen: AEI Banter podcast with Robert Doar on poverty, think tanks and the future of AEI
John Doar remembered as a Civil Rights pioneer
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