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Jonathan White

This was a year where overseas sports had to set their relationship status with China to “It’s complicated”.
It might even be that 2019 will come to be seen as the watershed moment for those hoping to get their slice of China, when everyone learned there was only ever going to be one winner.
The NBA found that out to its cost. Just as they found when it comes to China, sport and politics are inextricably linked.
This lesson came following a tweet from Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey expressing his personal support for the anti-government protests in Hong Kong.

Morey tweeted an image with the words “Fight for freedom. Stand with Hong Kong” and those 40 characters threatened to undo a four-decade-old relationship between the NBA and China.
It did not go that far in the end. The NBA China Games still went ahead and the league is being broadcast, but there have been losers. The Rockets have been all but wiped from the Chinese internet and Tencent has taken a massive hit in the pocket, as has the league itself.




The brakes have been put on that special relationship and we have all been reminded who is in charge. It’s as if Rockets star James Harden being stopped by Shanghai police and having his bike confiscated in the summer was a symbol of the road ahead.
Needless to say, the Rockets’ annual Chinese New Year jerseys might not be getting made this year, unless they opt for traditional rather than simplified characters.
English Premier League side Arsenal are another team who might well shelve their own annual CNY celebrations, again unless the players fancy butchering Cantonese rather than Mandarin this time.

Mesut Ozil saw to that with a social media post denouncing fellow Muslims for ignoring the treatment of the Uygurs in Xinjiang. An NBA-style fallout followed, with the player offered a visit to the region by the Chinese foreign ministry, who also announced he had been “deceived by fake news”.
His social media presence has been scrubbed, he has been pretty much wiped from Chinese search engines and he has been pulled from the eFootball Pro Evolution Soccer 2020 video game. Some fans even burned his shirt. Arsenal’s game against Manchester City was dropped from the CCTV schedule.
What made it all the more interesting was not everyone knew exactly what he said. His message was not published during the widespread criticism.

That was in part because of the detailing of the alleged human-rights abuses and in part because of his use of the term “East Turkestan”, something Beijing regards as tantamount to terrorism. It really is complicated.
Ozil, who found support from US secretary of state Mike Pompeo, was also called “silly” in a China Daily editorial.
That’s how the Chinese media works, as we saw with Sun Yang. The swimmer’s doping trial hung over him for most of the year, only being heard in November. By then the Olympic gold medallist had added to his world championships tally in South Korea and received his fair share of criticism from fellow athletes in the process.

Xinhua took aim at them, Aussie swimmer Mack Horton in particular, in an editorial. Following the hearing – which was a mummer’s farce thanks to translation issues – the Chinese media went even harder for their star man.
There was a lot of soft soaping, with looks inside the swimmer’s home and his return to training, but there was also the revelation that one of the testers on the night in question was a “construction worker”. It’s as if Scooby Doo met the Village People and we’re not even near a verdict.
That will come mid-January, CAS said, giving us an early candidate for the biggest sporting scandal of next year, whichever way the verdict comes out.

While political point-scoring prevailed in the last 12 months, there were several cases of outright cheating, too.
The biggest of them all was at the Boston Marathon where some Chinese runners tried to outwit the notoriously stringent qualification requirements. They were caught.
There were plenty of scandals in China-based marathons too, along with some bans coming off the back of 2018. The best one of them involved one runner becoming a cyclist as she completed some of the Xuzhou International Marathon on a bike. Twice.

A statement released by organisers read: “After an official found her and stopped her, the participant again rode (on the bike). She violated the rules.” She was banned for life.
Somehow that’s not even the most “and finally” moment of the year in Chinese sport. That goes to China’s military orienteers who lost their moral compass and cheated at the World Military Games.
A fitting end to the year and time to ask if even the orienteers are cheating, where are we headed next year?


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A worker removes a promotional banner from a building for the NBA China Games in Shanghai. Photo: AFP

Runners cross the start line of the 123rd Boston Marathon on Monday, April 15, 2019, in Hopkinton, Mass. (AP Photo/Stew Milne)

Gold medalist China's Sun Yang, centre, gestures to Britain's bronze medalists Duncan Scott, left, following the medal ceremony in the men's 200m freestyle final at the World Swimming Championships in Gwangju, South Korea, Tuesday, July 23, 2019. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

epa08074144 Arsenal's Mesut Ozil reacts during the English Premier league soccer match between Arsenal FC and Manchester City at Emirates stadium in London, Britain, 15 December 2019. EPA-EFE/FACUNDO ARRIZABALAGA EDITORIAL USE ONLY. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or 'live' services. Online in-match use limited to 120 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or single club/league/player publications

FILE - In this April 19, 2011, file photo, Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey talks during a news conference, in Houston. A since-deleted tweet from Morey that showed support for Hong Kong anti-government protesters has prompted an immediate backlash in China against the league. (AP Photo/Pat Sullivan, File)

FILE - In this Sunday, July 21, 2019 file photo, China's Sun Yang, centre, holds up his gold medal as silver medalist Australia's Mack Horton, left, stands away from the podium with bronze medalist Italy's Gabriele Detti at right, after the men's 400m freestyle final at the World Swimming Championships in Gwangju, South Korea. One of China's biggest Olympic stars will undergo a rare public trial of a doping case on Friday, Nov. 15, 2019 with his 2020 Tokyo Games place at stake. Three-time gold medalist swimmer Sun Yang is facing a World Anti-Doping Agency appeal in Switzerland that seeks to ban him for up eight years. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)

Sun Yang’s CAS doping hearing blighted by translation farce, and inflamed by ‘construction worker’ claims from Chinese state media

Journalists watch Sun Yang’s public hearing from the media room at the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Montreux, Switzerland. Photo: Xinhua

China's swimming star Sun Yang (L), accused of smashing a blood vial with a hammer, arrives next to his counsel Ian Meaking prior to his public hearing before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Montreux on November 15, 2019. - Triple Olympic champion Sun, winner of 11 world titles and a national hero back home, faces an eight-year ban if charges against him are upheld by the Court of Arbitration for Sport. (Photo by jean-guy PYTHON / AFP)

In this picture taken on July 25, 2019, China's Sun Yang attends a swimming training session at the 2019 World Championships at Nambu University Municipal Aquatics Center in Gwangju, South Korea. (Photo by Oli SCARFF / AFP)

Gold medalist China's Sun Yang gestures to Britain's bronze medalist Duncan Scott, left, following the medal ceremony in the men's 200m freestyle final at the World Swimming Championships in Gwangju, South Korea, Tuesday, July 23, 2019. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

epa07998533 Chinese swimming star Sun Yang (R) reacts as he arrives for the Court of Arbitration for Sport, (CAS) public hearing, in Montreux, Switzerland, 15 November 2019. One of China's biggest Olympic stars and three-time gold medalist swimmer Sun Yang is facing a World Anti-Doping Agency appeal in Switzerland that seeks to ban him for up eight years for allegedly refusing to give samples voluntarily. EPA-EFE/JEAN-CHRISTOPHE BOTT

Sun Yang saga: Xinhua accuses Mack Horton of immaturity but Chinese state news agency is being childish

Mack Horton refuses to stand on the podium with China’s gold medallist Sun Yang at the 2019 Fina World Championships. Photo: AFP

(190726) -- GWANGJU, July 26, 2019 (Xinhua) -- Sun Yang of China competes during the men's 4x200m freestyle relay preliminary at the Gwangju 2019 FINA World Championships in Gwangju, South Korea, July 26, 2019. (Xinhua/Tao Xiyi)

Manchester City's Spanish head-coach Pep Guardiola speaks during a press conference at the end of the friendly football match between English Premier League club Manchester City and Hong Kong's Kitchee at the Hong Kong Stadium, in Hong Kong on July 24, 2019. (Photo by Anthony WALLACE / AFP)

Britain's bronze medalist Duncan Scott, right, looks to gold medalist China's Sun Yang, left, as joint bronze medal winner Russia's Martin Malyutin looks on during the medal ceremony for the men's 200m freestyle final at the World Swimming Championships in Gwangju, South Korea, Tuesday, July 23, 2019. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Arsenal’s Mesut Ozil reaction could spark NBA-style crisis in China for English Premier League

Arsenal's Mesut Ozil in action against Norwich City in the English Premier League. Photo: Reuters

NBA China crisis: LeBron James’ ‘uneducated’ Daryl Morey stance and Twitter clarification reignite Houston Rockets row

Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James during their NBA China Games trip to Shanghai and Shenzhen. Photo: AFP

Sport

China

Basketball


Houston Rockets star James Harden being stopped by Shanghai police in the summer a fitting metaphor for the NBA’s China crisis
Premier League footballer Mesut Ozil latest to offend Beiing after social media posts on Xinjiang



Houston Rockets star James Harden being stopped by Shanghai police in the summer a fitting metaphor for the NBA’s China crisis following Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey’s tweet.


Sun Yang

NBA (National Basketball Association)

English Premier League

Year in Review 2019

Expresses the views, ideas and conclusions of the author. (Eg. Enough of Crazy Rich Asians, think of crazy poor Hongkongers.)


Opinion