China pulls the plug on the NBA

China is perhaps more open than ever. But there are still times you simply can’t get straight information.

My question today is: Why has the sports channel of the state broadcaster, CCTV, suddenly stopped showing NBA games as playoffs get interesting?

I woke up a few hours ago hoping to catch the Boston Celtics and Detroit Pistons live for the key sixth game in the eastern conference finals. No such luck. Instead, CCTV 5 was airing a gymnastics event from the 2004 Athens Olympics. Ugghh!

A bit of background: China is pretty wild about basketball. The NBA calculates that there are 300 million Chinese who either play basketball or express real interest in watching it. Click here for a story I did about it last fall.

And with two bona fide stars in the NBA, Yao Ming of the Houston Rockets and Yi Jianlian of the Milwaukee Bucks, interest by Chinese has climbed higher.

But amid the disaster of the May 12 Sichuan earthquake, the government pulled the plug on the NBA. By national decree, broadcasts were halted May 19-21 during three days of national mourning for quake victims. Indeed, all public entertainment was halted. A Lakers-Spurs playoff game was shown May 22. Since then, zilch, zippo, nada. Or as they say in Chinese, mei you.

Conflicting explanations over the continued suspension have filtered out. The Danwei website says the director of CCTV’s sports programming, Jiang Heping, said the NBA games were “too entertaining” for a period when the country is still mourning its quake deaths.

Some ordinary Chinese aren’t buying it. They see other explanations, like anger that Lakers reserve Ira Newble, when he was with the Cavaliers last season, issued a letter signed by most of his teammates urging China to turn up diplomatic pressure over the killing fields in Darfur, the stricken area of Sudan. NBA star Lebron James has also spoken out about Darfur.

This seems a little far-fetched to me. But the fact is, China hasn’t suspended the airing of NBA games since 1999, when U.S. warplanes bombed the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade.

For its part, the local NBA official, Timothy Chen, has said: “We are working closely with CCTV to ensure that NBA games and content are appropriate for China and to begin broadcasting as soon as possible.”

The NBA then ponied up $2 million in donations to quake-hit Sichuan Province. Was that not enough? Chinese sports officials weren't saying. All kinds of other entertainment is back on television. Indeed, the attitude on the NBA seems to be: "You know what you did. Don't make me have to explain it to you."

So what’s the real story? Don’t ask me. I’m busy watching a rerun of the 2004 Athens gymnastics events.

Comments

[A B]

I hate to say this, but to kick up a huge fuss that ends with the celebrities having their endorsement contracts pulled is pretty much SOP for interest groups everywhere.....

For example, if you are a sports / hunting writer, just try to say something that upsets the NRA and watch your livelihood disappear.

So it is pretty fair game to see Sharon Stone get mugged by having her ads pulled in China... and the NBA having their shows pulled (or all the advertisers cancel, which amounts to the same thing) for their players mouthing off.

The minor difference is the number of state owned concerns in China which gives it a tint of government censorship.... but in today's China... that is not always the case.

There is a public here, civil societies, and even the government(s) cannot always get their way.

If you think about it, restricting distribution is a technique that Lee Kwan Yew used for good effect.

Now... all you got to do is to have someone record the games for you in the USA (easily done from analog TV), render it, turn it into an MPEG file, and send it to you via bit torrent while you sleep.

I promise I wouldn't tell the RIAA and MPAA on you, Tim.

Hey.... while you are at it... check downstairs.... somebody probably has already done that and is selling the DVD for RMB 10.

[MT]

It looks like business decisions are made in China based on non-commercial/political reasons. It would be one thing if the public in China voluntarily boycotted the NBA. But for a govt agency to shutdown the NBA broadcasts without any protests, and without any reason given sounds like blackmail.

I think the US and EU needs to start retaliating against this kind of blackmail. May be they can start by holding up import permits etc. to Chinese companies closely associated with whichever bureaucrat in China is responsible for such arbitrary decisions. (Note: Before somebody accuses me of unfair treatment, China already does this with foreign companies.)

[carryanne]

I agree with above comments. I definitely think it is about the players criticizing the CCP. No one who criticizes the regime like that is allowed to be free in China. To put it bluntly, you have to sell your soul to do business in China. Leave your conscience at the door or else, and it's as simple as that. WHat is the regime afraid of? People criticizing it, pointing out injustices and cruelties that they do not want to come to light. It is their mandate to stay in power and they constantly manipulate every aspect of society as best they can to maintain a monopoly on thoughts. NBA stars are dangerous idols that could influence people to open their minds to different perspectives so of course they see it as a threat. It is so sad.

[carryanne]

Bt I dont agree with AB that this is so called fair game. It is really disgusting but some people just accept it, but I think the conscience is really important, truth and justice are super important, ore important than corrupt dollars. The system is totally evil since the requirement to do business with it is that you muzzle your mind and become a robocommie money worshiper. But thats my own beliefs, I know some people really do only believe in money and material gain and that is there belief and principles and they might think the conscience and truth are not so important. Those types are the ones the party likes and those are the ones who fell China is free, because they feel comfy within the boundries set by the CCP. If you value the conscience and truth, right away you will realize you are not free, and you will know that the cultural revolution is really not over, unfortunately.

[Wilbur Varela]

Uh oh, looks like the old nationalist totalitarian dictatorship is working overtime (no pun intended) to control minds. Same old, same old. I keep imagining some uptight party hacks in a giant control room, throwing switches and unleashing the hacker brigade whenever the "feelings of the chinese people" are hurt. Big country, small minds.

Get ready for some long blackouts during the olympics, better known as the "glorious peoples games of the heroic golden medal winners of the glorious middle kingdom who hates all ideas other than their own. " glorious.

meanwhile, back to the lakers and celts......

[WC]

May be and probably the CCTV did the black-out on the protesting stories of Ira Newble, his teammates and Lebron so that millions of young, angry, spoiled, nationalistic 20+ young basketball fans in China would know not about the NBA protests. They would probably demand back-out a few NBA games and beg for the entertainment from the bourgeois America "paper tiger" with 11 thousand warhead "nuclear teeth". May be they would over-throw the threatening, evil, undemocratic Chinese government with 300 warheads? It could be that the 21st centry "Hitler regime" china has 30,000 secret nuclear warheads? Who knows? You tell me.