The Golden State Warriors tried to quickly distance themselves from tech billionaire Chamath Palihapitiya’s incendiary remarks about the Uyghur genocide, but the team has been slammed for a “cowardly” response that critics say shows their fear of upsetting the Chinese government.
Palihapitiya, a Palo Alto-based venture capitalist who reportedly holds a 10-percent stake in the Warriors, said on a podcast Saturday: “Let’s be honest, nobody cares about what’s happening to the Uyghurs, OK?” He said that peoples’ concern about their oppression was “deplorable” virtue signaling and even questioned whether reports of human rights abuses had been exaggerated.
In response, the Warriors’ press office issued a brief one-sentence statement on Monday that only said that Palihapitiya “has no day-to-day operating functions” with the team. The Warriors said he therefore “does not speak on behalf of our franchise, and his views certainly don’t reflect those of our organization.”
But the team has since been called out for not being more forceful in denouncing Palihapitiya’s remarks. The U.S. government has declared that the Chinese government has committed genocide against the Uyghurs, a mostly Muslim minority group that is native to the northwest Xinjiang region, the Washington Post reported. Scholars estimate that more than 1 million Uyghurs have been detained in re-education camps, where they have reportedly been subject to rape, sterilizations and slave labor.
To critics, it appeared that the Warriors were trying to avoid controversy by not mentioning the name of the Uyghurs and by not explaining how exactly they disagree with what Palihapitiya said. But the controversy erupted anyway. Raymond Ridder, senior vice president of communications for the Warriors, said the team would have no further comment.
“Say Uyghurs,” pronounced some on Twitter. Others also questioned why the Warriors avoided talking about China in their statement. They said it’s clear that the Warriors, like any NBA team, fears financial repercussions from China, their most important international market.
Quartz writer Jane Li wrote that the Warriors’ response “ is a reminder of the extent of China’s sway over discussion of human rights issues even beyond its borders.” San Francisco entrepreneur Zach Coelius said on Twitter that he Warriors’ statement was “pathetic” and “cowardly.”
The New York Post added that human rights in China has become “a third-rail topic for the NBA.” The NBA’s standing in China suffered a costly blow during the 2019-20 season when then-Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey tweeted out support for pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. His tweet drew criticism from around the league, including from LeBron James, who was in China with the Lakers at the time. It also resulted in Beijing’s state television pulling some NBA games off its channels.
The Warriors’ statement was certainly tame when compared to a blistering tweet from Enes Kanter Freedom. The center for the Boston Celtics is openly critical of China’s record of human rights abuses. He tweeted a clip of Palihapitiya’s podcast comments and said: “When @NBA says we stand for justice, don’t forget there are those who sell their soul for money & business like @chamath the owner of @warriors. … When genocides happen, it is people like this that let it happen Shame!”
When @NBA says we stand for justice, don’t forget there are those who sell their soul for money & business like @chamath the owner of @warriors,
who says “Nobody cares about what’s happening to the Uyghurs”When genocides happen, it is people
like this that let it happenShame! pic.twitter.com/27j2GxGhCU
— Enes FREEDOM (@EnesFreedom) January 17, 2022
Even as the Warriors tried to distance themselves from Palihapitiya, his remarks continued to be associated with the team and the NBA as they drew widespread condemnation from human rights leaders, scholars, politicos and pundits from different sides of the political spectrum. Podcaster Tommy Vietor, the former National Security Council spokesman under President Obama, decried the billionaire’s “whataboutism” and “ignorance.”
The White House said it “rejected” Palihapitiya’s comments, while former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted that the Warriors and the NBA need to do better “if the @NBA truly stands for justice.” Ahmed Mitchell, the national deputy director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said “It is unconscionable that a corporate leader and NBA owner would so coldly dismiss the Chinese Communist Party’s ongoing genocide of Uyghur Muslims.’
As the controversy grew Monday, Palihapitiya, a Sri Lankan-born Canadian American, issued a statement on Twitter, “clarifying” his comments. He didn’t apologize for what he said but acknowledged that he came across as “lacking in empathy.”
“As a refugee, my family fled a country with its own set of human rights issues so this is something that is very much a part of my lived experience,” he wrote.” To be clear, my belief is that human rights matter, whether in China, the United States, or elsewhere. Full stop.”
Palihapitiya’s comments came during Saturday’s episode of the tech podcast “All-In” when he and fellow co-hosts were having a broader discussion about presidential politics and the nation’s role in international affairs.
Co-host Jason Calacanis praised the Biden administration for taking a stand against China’s human rights abuses. The president signed a bill in December banning imports from the Xinjiang region, NBC reported. The White House also announced a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, citing “ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang and other human rights abuses.”
But after Palihapitiya said “nobody cares about what’s happening to the Uyghurs,” he added: “I think that’s nice that you care — the rest of us don’t care. I’m telling you a very hard, ugly truth. Of all the things that I care about, it is below my line.”
As the discussion continued, Palihapitiya suggested that the United States should prioritize its own human rights issues. He also questioned whether China was a dictatorship and said that concern for global human rights was a “luxury belief.” As Newsweek said, he used a popular argument employed by Beijing in saying that the United States is hypocritical for pointing out China’s poor human rights record given its own failings.
Palihapitiya also showed a lack of awareness about the American and international response by saying that the United States and other governments and international bodies have been mostly “silent” on the issue, Newsweek added.
In fact, the United Nations has sought access to China in order to conduct an independent assessments while the 27-member European Union has joined Washington in sanctioning Chinese officials said to be responsible for the abuses against the Uyghurs, Newsweek said.
An early manager at Facebook, Palihapitiya is now CEO of the investment firm Social Capital, whose mission is to advance humanity by solving the world’s hardest problems. He also is the chairman of Virgin Galactic, a space tourism company. Palihapitiya joined the Warriors’ ownership group in 2011, about a year after Joe Lacob and Peter Guber bought the team for $450 million, the Washington Post and ESPN reported.
