Laura Ingraham Calls on America: 'We Should Cut Ties with China Across the Board'
Fox News host Laura Ingraham has waded into the controversy over the National Basketball Association’s relationship with China by chiding NBA players for siding against freedom when taking a stand has a cost attached.
Ingraham, who hosts “The Ingraham Angle,” also said this week on Fox Nation’s “Laura and Raymond” that instead of cozying up to China, America should do just the opposite.
“I think we should cut ties with China across the board,” Ingraham said.
Ingraham voiced contempt for athletes who often espouse social justice causes, but are silent about China, which is a major source of money for the league.
“This is a very interesting moment in our country,” she said. “This has forced the issue of human rights and social justice that a lot of these players are proud to stand for at home, when it costs them nothing, suddenly, it costs them something and the zipper goes across the mouth.”
According to the the Fox News host, China is both a dangerous antagonist and a seductive revenue opportunity.
“They’re a communist force, they’re subjugating, oppressing, demonizing their own people and now they have so much outsized market influence, who’s gonna say no to that,” she said.
“They have a million people in concentration camps … I mean … somehow because China has all this coin they’re a growing marketplace, and this is why it was so dangerous for the United States to allow China to become so powerful economically and to help them.”
The widening chasm between the NBA and China, where the league is very popular, began when Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey tweeted in support of pro-democracy Hong Kong protesters.
China then stopped airing all NBA games on TV, but has since allowed some games to be seen.
NBA stars LeBron James of the Lakers and James Harden of the Rockets have suggested Morey’s tweet was bad diplomacy.
Vice President Mike Pence and NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal have pushed back on this narrative.
Pence slapped the NBA and Nike for “kowtowing” to China and “muzzling” criticism of its government, the BBC reported.
“In siding with the Chinese Communist Party and silencing free speech, the NBA is acting like a wholly owned subsidiary of that authoritarian regime,” Pence said.
That drew a heated response from former NBA star Charles Barkley, who said Pence should “shut the hell up,” according to CNN.
The issue has provoked passionate responses on social media.
Charles Barkley, and the NBA, CAN MOVE TO CHINA! If you’re against the United States, move to another country!
— KP_UTDeplorable (@utdeplorable) October 25, 2019
?@NBA broadcasting contract with Tencent, a tool of the Chinese Communist Party: $1.5 billion
?@Nike’s reported sales in China last year: $6.2 billion
??Free speech: priceless https://t.co/LpGq6heKj2 pic.twitter.com/XLXiYQVbJN— Senator Ted Cruz (@SenTedCruz) October 25, 2019
I am with Ingraham, we should cut all ties with Communist China. China has the worst human right record. Our forefathers did not do business with Communist Countries because it promotes slavery and makes them Militarily stronger!
— Dwight J Barrett (@thenegotiatoric) October 25, 2019
White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said the NBA controversy has been a lesson for the American people.
“If anybody didn’t understand what China is about now, this has penetrated down to people who focus on sports and they’re going, ‘This isn’t right. It’s just not right,’” Navarro said Friday on the Fox News show “America’s Newsroom.”
“This has been an epiphany for the American people,” Navarro said.
“The fact that China is trying to export its authoritarian rules and regulations to the American people by muzzling the NBA. People finally get it.”
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