美国国家公共电台 NPR Opinion: NBA Sidelines Free Speech In Favor Of China

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

James Harden, one of the greatest players in basketball, has the greatest beard in sports - long, wiry and full. And he wouldn't be allowed to keep his beard in the Xinjiang region of China, where more than a million Chinese Uighur Muslims have been imprisoned¹ in reeducation camps, and abnormal beards are outlawed² as a sign of dissidence.

It's not surprising that when Daryl Morey, the general manager of Mr. Harden's team, the Houston Rockets, tweeted an image with the words, fight for freedom, stand with Hong Kong, Chinese state television stopped broadcasting and streaming the Rockets' games, and Chinese companies dropped their sponsorships. And it's not surprising NBA officials rushed to say they disagreed with the tweet. It's estimated that the NBA stands to make more than half a billion dollars in China this year.

James Harden, who's joined NBA stars in speaking out against police brutality³ and other urgent issues in America, apologized for Daryl Morey's tweet by saying, you know, we love China. We love playing there. They show us the most important love. He may mean dollars and cents or Tencent, a Chinese company that beams the NBA's games to some 500 million people. That vast following has made James Harden and other NBA greats not only famous in China but even richer with endorsement⁴ contracts.

Most Americans buy products from China without much care about how Chinese companies can pay low wages for long hours and sometimes treacherous⁵ conditions. We know China is an authoritarian⁶ country that censors⁷ its citizens, jails dissidents and suppresses free speech. But the league's apologies for Darryl Morey's free speech in support of Hong Kong's protesters may have shown Americans just how much of our own free speech U.S. corporations are willing to surrender to keep doing business with China.

NBA players have made public stands to support the Black Lives Matter movement and decry⁸ police brutality. Seventy-four-percent of the players in the NBA are African-American. About 20% are from other countries. The league has stood up for players and coaches who criticize U.S. political figures. And NBA Commissioner⁹ Adam Silver has spoken proudly of what he calls their sense of an obligation, social responsibility, a desire to speak up. Protesters in Hong Kong and jailed dissidents all over China might tell the National Basketball Association how speaking up has cost them a lot more than money.

(SOUNDBITE OF CHRIS LIGHTCAP'S "ZERO POINT FIVE")

1 imprisoned   

下狱，监禁( imprison的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He was imprisoned for two concurrent terms of 30 months and 18 months. 他被判处30个月和18个月的监禁，合并执行。
• They were imprisoned for possession of drugs. 他们因拥有毒品而被监禁。

2 outlawed   

宣布…为不合法（outlaw的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• Most states have outlawed the use of marijuana. 大多数州都宣布使用大麻为非法行为。
• I hope the sale of tobacco will be outlawed someday. 我希望有朝一日烟草制品会禁止销售。

3 brutality   

n.野蛮的行为，残忍，野蛮

参考例句：

• The brutality of the crime has appalled the public. 罪行之残暴使公众大为震惊。
• a general who was infamous for his brutality 因残忍而恶名昭彰的将军

4 endorsement   

n.背书；赞成，认可，担保；签(注)，批注

参考例句：

• We are happy to give the product our full endorsement.我们很高兴给予该产品完全的认可。
• His presidential campaign won endorsement from several celebrities.他参加总统竞选得到一些社会名流的支持。

5 treacherous   

adj.不可靠的，有暗藏的危险的；adj.背叛的，背信弃义的

参考例句：

• The surface water made the road treacherous for drivers.路面的积水对驾车者构成危险。
• The frozen snow was treacherous to walk on.在冻雪上行走有潜在危险。

6 authoritarian   

n./adj.专制(的)，专制主义者，独裁主义者

参考例句：

• Foreign diplomats suspect him of authoritarian tendencies.各国外交官怀疑他有着独裁主义倾向。
• The authoritarian policy wasn't proved to be a success.独裁主义的政策证明并不成功。

7 censors   

删剪（书籍、电影等中被认为犯忌、违反道德或政治上危险的内容）( censor的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• The censors eviscerated the book to make it inoffensive to the President. 审查员删去了该书的精华以取悦于总统。
• The censors let out not a word. 检察官一字也不发。

8 decry   

v.危难，谴责

参考例句：

• Some people will decry this,insisting that President Obama should have tried harder to gain bipartisan support.有些人会对此表示谴责，坚持说奥巴马总统原本应该更加努力获得两党的支持。
• Now you decry him as another Hitler because he is a threat to the controlling interest of oil in the middle east.现在你却因为他对中东石油控制权益构成了威胁而谴责他为另一个希特勒。

9 commissioner   

n.（政府厅、局、处等部门）专员，长官，委员

参考例句：

• The commissioner has issued a warrant for her arrest.专员发出了对她的逮捕令。
• He was tapped for police commissioner.他被任命为警务处长。