GENEVA, Switzerland — Long-time NBA player
Enes Kanter Freedom, whose advocacy on Xinjiang
and Tibet has ruffled feathers, hopes to bend UN human rights chief Michelle
Bachelet’s ear on Thursday about her forthcoming China visit.
اضافة اعلان
Kanter Freedom
has emerged as one of China’s most vocal critics in the sporting world: a rare
athlete willing to forgo lucrative endorsements to speak on issues such as
Beijing’s treatment of its
Uyghur Muslim and Tibetan minorities.
At an event they are both due to attend in Geneva,
he hopes to spur Bachelet into “solid action” on China rather than mere
condemnation.
“I am really
hopeful for that meeting,” he told AFP.
“We need change,
and change cannot wait anymore. We need to take immediate action. What she
represents is to bring awareness but what I want to tell her is, do not just
talk about it: be about it.”
“Take some solid
actions because condemning is good, it brings awareness, but it doesn’t change
anything.”
The
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights is set to make a long-delayed visit to China in
May, including to Xinjiang, where Western lawmakers have accused Beijing of
genocide against the Uyghurs — allegations vigorously denied by China.
“We don’t have
time to wait. People are dying and getting killed, so she definitely needs to
push whoever she needs to push,” said Kanter Freedom.
Money versus morals
He was raised in Turkey and played for the national team but criticized
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan over rights issues and had his passport revoked
by the Turkish government in 2017.
For several years afterwards, Kanter said he feared
for his life and refused to leave North America.
The former
Boston Celtics center, who made his
NBA debut in 2011 with the Utah Jazz,
became a US citizen last November and added Freedom to his name to celebrate
his new nationality.
He will be
presented Wednesday with the 2022 Courage Award at the 14th annual
Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy, organized by rights NGOs, for “risking
his career” to speak out on the Uyghurs.
China is by far
the NBA’s largest overseas market, but in October last year Chinese streaming
service Tencent stopped showing Celtics games after Kanter Freedom branded
President Xi Jinping a “brutal dictator”.
Kanter Freedom
said that athletes nowadays have a huge platform due to their social media
reach, and urged them to use it to raise issues that transcend sport — even at
the risk of losing sponsorship deal opportunities.
He called for a
boycott of the
Beijing Winter Olympics in February and while pleased with the
diplomatic snub from some countries, he said athletes should also have taken a
stand.
“They have
picked money and business over morals, principles, and values. So shame on all
these athletes who attended,” he said.
Kanter Freedom
said China was closely watching the world’s response to Russia’s war in Ukraine
and called for tougher sanctions on Moscow to deter Beijing from invading
Taiwan.
“We don’t want
another Ukraine to happen to Taiwan,” he said.
Traded, then released
NBA basketball only returned to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV for the
first time in nearly 18 months last week, after
China blacklisted it because a
Houston Rockets official voiced support for Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement.
Kanter Freedom
feels he is paying a price for his advocacy.
The Celtics
traded him in February to the Rockets — who immediately released him, leaving
him looking for a new NBA team.
“I averaged
double-double last year and people know I can still go out there and play,” he
said, citing his statistics.
“I’m 29 and I
plan to play another six or seven years in the league because my body feels
healthy and I love basketball.
“I do believe
that yes, they are punishing me in a way, and making sure every other athlete
sees what I am going through so they won’t talk about the issues that are
happening in China.”
But he added: “I don’t
regret anything that I have done. If I could go back in time, I would do it
even louder.”
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