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Kanter insults Xi Jinping: NBA player attacks China’s “brutal dictator”

Kanter beleidigt Xi Jinping
NBA player attacks China’s “brutal dictator”

Basketball player Enes Kanter attacks Chinese President Xi Jinping in a video. He describes him as a “brutal dictator”. A little later he runs up while playing his Boston Celtics with shoes marked “Free Tibet”. The Asian superpower interrupts the TV broadcast.

When NBA player Enes Kanter attacked China, he wore a black Dalai Lama shirt. Dennis Schröder’s team-mate calls Chinese President Xi Jinping a “brutal dictator” on Twitter and declares that “Tibet belongs to the Tibetan people”. The 2:46 minute long video that Kanter published on social networks immediately made waves – and should again cause tension between Beijing and the US basketball league.

“I stand by my Tibetan brothers and sisters and support their calls for freedom,” says Kanter, who is known for being vocal politically, in the video. On Wednesday evening (local time), the 29-year-old did not play for his Celtics at 134: 138 at the New York Knicks, but was in the focus. The Zurich-born son of Turkish parents wore shoes with the words “Free Tibet” on them. In China, the transfer of the lot was canceled.

Beijing’s role in Tibet is once again exposed to the public. Protestants only showed the Tibetan flag on Monday when the Olympic flame was lit for the Winter Games in China (February 4 to 20). A spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry rejected Kanter’s criticism. The “ridiculous allegations” are “not even worth refuting.”

Escalation threatens between the NBA and China

Kanter made a name for himself years ago as a harsh critic of Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s regime in Turkey. In his parents’ homeland, the center is considered a terrorist and his passport has been canceled. In 2019, he did not travel to London for an NBA promotional tour for fear of being abducted. But Kanter himself is also criticized for his political commitment because he is a supporter of the controversial Turkish preacher Fethullah Gülen.

“Tibet belongs to the Tibetans, I am here to raise my voice and speak out against what is happening in Tibet under the brutal rule of the Chinese government,” said Kanter. Religious oppression, torture and forced sterilization: human rights activists and Tibetans in exile accuse China of numerous atrocities in the Himalayan region, which has been occupied by the People’s Republic since 1951.

With his action, Kanter should now ensure the next crisis between the NBA and China. In 2019, the country temporarily halted TV broadcasts of NBA games after Daryl Morey, former Houston Rockets general manager, Twitter supported pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong. The NBA was forced to apologize.

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