Observers watching closely for Hong Kong protests at Vancouver NBA game
Credit to Author: Joanne Lee-Young| Date: Fri, 11 Oct 2019 22:54:42 +0000
On Wednesday, Reuters reported that some NBA fans in China are asking for subscription refunds from Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings, which has rights to stream U.S. games in China and said it would suspend showing them.
A Chinese flag is seen placed on basketballs in the NBA flagship retail store in Beijing, China. The NBA is trying to salvage its brand in China amid criticism of its handling of a controversial tweet that infuriated the government and has jeopardized the league’s Chinese expansion. The crisis, triggered by a Houston Rockets executives tweet that praised protests in Hong Kong, prompted the Chinese Basketball Association to suspend its partnership with the league. The backlash continued with state-owned television CCTV scrapping its plans to broadcast pre-season games in Shanghai and Shenzhen, and the cancellation of other promotional fan events. The league issued an apology, though NBA Commissioner Adam Silver angered Chinese officials further when he defended the right of players and team executives to free speech. China represents a lucrative market for the NBA, which stands to lose millions of dollars in revenue and threatens to alienate Chinese fans. Many have taken to Chinas social media platforms to express their outrage and disappointment that the NBA would question the country’s sovereignty over Hong Kong which has been mired in anti-government protests since June.
A small group of employees at online game publisher Activision Blizzard’s main campus in Irvine, California staged a walkout after the company banned Hearthstone player Chung Ng Wai from its league for a year and took back his earnings. The Hong Kong-based player was punished for shouting, “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times,” during an interview about his tournament success.
Tiffany & Co., the U.S. jewelry brand, on Wednesday deleted a tweet showing a model wearing a diamond ring on her right hand and using it to cover her right eye after mainland Chinese consumers accused it of being in solidarity with the view of Hong Kong demonstrators who had been using the same pose to call for inquiries into police violence.
Also on Wednesday, after Apple was criticized by Chinese-state media for a mapping app in its app store that allowed Hong Kong protesters to track the movement of police, the American tech giant removed the app from its store.
Meredith said companies have different market segments. When two of these segments involve people deeply opposed over Hong Kong and pleasing one means losing the other, the solution has sometimes been to choose the one with the greater financial potential, Meredith said. But this calculation is fraught with risk when “global product suppliers” find their future and traditional markets pitted directly against each other.
jlee-young@postmedia.com