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As LeBron James spoke, the frustration in his tone and body language increasingly grew.

The Los Angeles Lakers star spent the past week on a preseason trip in China, and the concerns went beyond basketball. It also included the Chinese government and citizens taking offense to Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey tweeting out support for Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters just before the trip started.

"I don’t want to get in a word or sentence feud with Daryl Morey. But I believe he wasn’t educated on the situation at hand and he spoke," James said before the Lakers’ preseason game against the Golden State Warriors on Monday at Staples Center. "So many people could have been harmed, not only physically or financially, but emotionally and spiritually. Just be careful what we tweet, what we say and what we do. We do have freedom of speech, but there can be a lot of negative things that come with that too."

James stressed that he did not consider Morey to be "misinformed" about his understanding of the Hong Kong protests. Instead, James believed Morey remained "misinformed" on how China would react to his tweet. James reiterated that message in a pair of tweets shortly after speaking to reporters.

"I believe he was misinformed or not really educated on the situation," James said of Morey. "If he was, so be it. I have no idea, but that’s my belief. When you say things or do things, you’re doing it and know the things that can be affected by it and the families and individuals that can be affected by it. Sometimes it can be changed as well. Sometimes social media is not a proper way to go about things as well. That’s just my belief."

When you say things or do things, you’re doing it and know the things that can be affected by it and the families and individuals that can be affected by it. Sometimes it can be changed as well.

Schlegel wrote: ↑Tue Oct 15, 2019 2:59 am Wow, the NBA player take on china continues to dazzle. I never thought our sportsball players would piss away their credibility quite this fast. Next time Lebron protests a cop killing somebody send him $5 cause that appears to be his per capita rate to shut up about injustice.

Sua Sponte wrote: ↑Mon Oct 21, 2019 10:38 pm That doesn't even kinda, sorta scratch the surface of the military and commercial espionage the Chinese have been involved in. Add this to the training of their students in our doctoral programs and we've pretty much not only had stolen away from under our noses trillions of dollars in research, we then provided the pathway to their technological future. Infuriating.

On Tuesday night, security guards at Philadelphia's Wells Fargo Center ejected a pair of fans from a preseason game between the Philadelphia 76ers and the Guangzhou Loong Lions, a Chinese team. The fans had been holding signs reading "Free Hong Kong," and NBC Philadelphia reported that the fans were heard chanting the same slogan during the game. Video of the incident quickly circulated on Twitter.

On Wednesday night, when the Guangzhou Loong Lions played a game in Washington, D.C., there were more protesters with more signs. One asked people to "Google Uighurs" in reference to the Muslim-minority group that's been systemically persecuted and forced into internment camps in western China. Others expressed support for the protests in Hong Kong. Again, the signs were confiscated and the fans were escorted from the arena.

nafod wrote: ↑Fri Oct 04, 2019 2:41 am Our enemy???

"In that call, Trump also told Xi he would remain quiet on Hong Kong protests as trade talks progressed."

Meanwhile in Hong Kong, protesters know who (used to) represent freedom.

What legitimacy the Communist Party possessed was based on the decades of economic growth inaugurated by Deng Xiaoping in 1978. But growth has slowed to its lowest level in decades as the Chinese workforce ages, low-hanging investment opportunities disappear, and the trade war with the United States reduces manufacturing output and sends supply lines to Vietnam and Mexico. Capital is fleeing China at a record pace as the bourgeoisie hedge against stagnation and turmoil.

For all of the Chinese government's much publicized investments in research and development and defense, and despite the size of its economy, per capita gross domestic product is $10,000, slightly less than that of the Russia Federation ($11,000) and a fraction of that of the United States ($65,000). Recent weeks have brought an uptick in bank runs. The government's response to slowdown has been to tighten state control. "Between 2012 and 2018, assets of state companies grew at more than 15 percent annually, well over twice the pace of expansion of China's GDP and double the pace of growth of gross domestic capital formation," writes Nicholas R. Lardy of the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

Gene wrote: ↑Sat Nov 30, 2019 4:49 pm

nafod wrote: ↑Fri Oct 04, 2019 2:41 am Our enemy???

"In that call, Trump also told Xi he would remain quiet on Hong Kong protests as trade talks progressed."

Meanwhile in Hong Kong, protesters know who (used to) represent freedom.

The US isn't in a position to do any good in Hong Kong...I am amazed at the stupidity of these people waving US flags. Beijing can cast them as "American hirelings" or "color revolutionaries". Traitors even.

nafod wrote: ↑Sun Dec 01, 2019 4:20 pmSure, but ideas have power. The US flag remains a crazy powerful symbol of freedom, even as lefties argue all the horrible things we’ve done means we are too morally bankrupt to tell anyone anything, and as righties argue a zero sum “America first” screw the world out of a buck mantra.

I agree that it is their fight to fight. W should give them our implicit backing.

nafod wrote: ↑Sun Dec 01, 2019 4:20 pm

Gene wrote: ↑Sat Nov 30, 2019 4:49 pm

nafod wrote: ↑Fri Oct 04, 2019 2:41 am Our enemy???

"In that call, Trump also told Xi he would remain quiet on Hong Kong protests as trade talks progressed."

The US flag remains a crazy powerful symbol of freedom

Never underestimate the power of brainwashing.

Arsenal soccer star Mesut Özil’s Instagram post about China’s treatment of Uighurs in Xinjiang is threatening China’s relationship with the English Premier League (EPL), the world’s fourth biggest sports league.

In his post Özil, a star German midfielder of Turkish descent, called out China for perpetuating human rights violations, religious and ethnic discrimination, and mass detention of China’s western-muslim minority.

“[China] burns their Qurans. They shut down their mosques. They ban their schools. They kill their holy men. The men are forced into camps and their families are forced to live with Chinese men,” Özil wrote. “But Muslims are silent. They won’t make a noise. They have abandoned them. Don’t they know that giving consent for persecution is persecution itself?”

Özil’s statement comes amid a spate of recent reporting on leaked documents detailing the formation and implementation of policies to surveil, round up, and detain up to a million Chinese Uighurs in Xinjiang, which Chinese officials have vehemently denied.

On Monday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said that Özil “was deceived by fake news.”