Recently, there has been a developing controversy around the Hong Kong protests that featured LeBron James, Daryl Morey, the NBA, and the Chinese Government. It is a sticky situation that has the struggle for free speech written all over it. But, if you look closer, there is a struggle for more than just free speech - it is the struggle for the independence of Hong Kong.
The beginning of this struggle dates back to 1842 when the British defeated the Chinese, and won Hong Kong in the Treaty of Nanking. In 1997, Hong Kong was to return to China, but with a slight twist. Under a special agreement, although they would technically still have Hong Kong, China was to allow Hong Kong to operate under it's own government.
This is known as the "one country, two systems." Hong Kong was to be given it's own legal system with many of the rights that we celebrate here in the US. They had the right to vote, the right to freedom of speech, press, and assembly. But there is an end date for all of this, in 2047 Hong Kong is to be merged completely back into the nation of China. That is still nearly thirty years away, but recently, the Chinese government has grown impatient as they have sought to influence politics within the Hong Kong elections. They've even gone so far as to move military vehicles to the border that separates Hong Kong from Mainland China - seemingly to threaten action against the Hong Kong protests.
All of this is to give us context when we look at the twitter war between Daryl Morey, the Houston Rockets General Manager, and Lebron James. Daryl Morey released this tweet recently:
Lebron James fired back in an interview saying that we ought to be wary about the ramifications that a tweet like that can have on such a fragile situation like this one. After this interview, James suffered quite a bit of criticism for his views. Since then, he has softened his criticism of Morey, but still holds to the poor timing of the tweet. Morey too has admitted that he wasn't as sensitive as he should have been. The fall out of this controversy has been that the NBA is not currently being televised in China, amongst other things.
What should we take from all of this?
The first thing is to remember that behind one single issue, there is normally something much larger in the works. Secondly, we ought to be aware of the struggles of other countries. Awareness is such a overused term today, but there is truth to it - we can't help others if we don't know what is going on. We can't offer up prayers for the oppressed, if we don't know who is being oppressed.
And finally, we ought to realize how blessed we are in the United States, and how this should encourage us to double our efforts in our fights to keep our freedoms. Unlike Hong Kong, we don't have a deadline on our freedom. They even recognize how blessed we have been. They actually sang our national anthem at one of their protests.
The beginning of this struggle dates back to 1842 when the British defeated the Chinese, and won Hong Kong in the Treaty of Nanking. In 1997, Hong Kong was to return to China, but with a slight twist. Under a special agreement, although they would technically still have Hong Kong, China was to allow Hong Kong to operate under it's own government.
This is known as the "one country, two systems." Hong Kong was to be given it's own legal system with many of the rights that we celebrate here in the US. They had the right to vote, the right to freedom of speech, press, and assembly. But there is an end date for all of this, in 2047 Hong Kong is to be merged completely back into the nation of China. That is still nearly thirty years away, but recently, the Chinese government has grown impatient as they have sought to influence politics within the Hong Kong elections. They've even gone so far as to move military vehicles to the border that separates Hong Kong from Mainland China - seemingly to threaten action against the Hong Kong protests.
All of this is to give us context when we look at the twitter war between Daryl Morey, the Houston Rockets General Manager, and Lebron James. Daryl Morey released this tweet recently:
Lebron James fired back in an interview saying that we ought to be wary about the ramifications that a tweet like that can have on such a fragile situation like this one. After this interview, James suffered quite a bit of criticism for his views. Since then, he has softened his criticism of Morey, but still holds to the poor timing of the tweet. Morey too has admitted that he wasn't as sensitive as he should have been. The fall out of this controversy has been that the NBA is not currently being televised in China, amongst other things.
What should we take from all of this?
The first thing is to remember that behind one single issue, there is normally something much larger in the works. Secondly, we ought to be aware of the struggles of other countries. Awareness is such a overused term today, but there is truth to it - we can't help others if we don't know what is going on. We can't offer up prayers for the oppressed, if we don't know who is being oppressed.
And finally, we ought to realize how blessed we are in the United States, and how this should encourage us to double our efforts in our fights to keep our freedoms. Unlike Hong Kong, we don't have a deadline on our freedom. They even recognize how blessed we have been. They actually sang our national anthem at one of their protests.
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