{"id":2036,"date":"2021-04-03T22:49:30","date_gmt":"2021-04-03T13:49:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yuzb.net\/en\/?p=2036"},"modified":"2021-04-03T22:49:30","modified_gmt":"2021-04-03T13:49:30","slug":"soccer-stars-speak-out-on-chinas-uyghurs-and-pay-a-price","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/yuzb.net\/en\/2021\/04\/03\/soccer-stars-speak-out-on-chinas-uyghurs-and-pay-a-price\/","title":{"rendered":"Soccer stars speak out on China&#8217;s Uyghurs \u2014 and pay a price"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/authors\/baebrahimian\/\">Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian<\/a>, author of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/newsletters\/axios-china\">China<\/a><br><a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/china-uyghurs-ozil-soccer-62b72820-4608-43b6-8ebf-18187d878429.html?utm_campaign=organic&amp;utm_medium=socialshare&amp;utm_source=facebook&amp;fbclid=IwAR0lQ-mp7TOCsCMzTbMxQiB82AG5ftVTAKOdhpTiM7k2iL5S729IHcVaRvs\">Soccer stars speak out on China&#8217;s Uyghurs \u2014 and pay a price &#8211; Axios<\/a> <br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.axios.com\/fPNViH1T54MEXCOclX1qboEg9FE=\/0x0:1920x1080\/1920x1080\/2021\/03\/30\/1617113287142.jpg\" alt=\"Illustration of an Islamic crescent and star being caught in a soccer goal net. \"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Illustration: A\u00efda Amer\/Axios<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some European soccer stars have used their fame to raise awareness of China&#8217;s campaign against Uyghur Muslims. At least one has paid a steep price for speaking out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Why it matters:&nbsp;<\/strong>The Chinese government can deny access to its huge market of soccer fans to punish international players or teams whose speech crosses Beijing&#8217;s red lines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Details:<\/strong>&nbsp;In December 2019, German soccer star Mesut \u00d6zil, then with English club Arsenal, condemned China&#8217;s repression of Uyghur Muslims in a&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MesutOzil1088\/status\/1205439723302469632\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">tweet<\/a>&nbsp;that received more than 200,000 likes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>&#8220;They burn their Qurans. They shut down their mosques. They ban their schools. They kill their holy men,&#8221; wrote \u00d6zil, who is Muslim.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.axios.com\/oqu-SiFml9lI3E5u0CA0k5mgHag=\/2021\/03\/30\/1617113700183.jpg\" alt=\"Mesut Ozil of Arsenal during Arsenal Training Session at London Colney on March 10, 2020.\"\/><figcaption>Mesut \u00d6zil during an Arsenal training session, March 2020. Photo: David Price\/Arsenal FC via Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>After the tweet, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV announced it would&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/football\/50799009\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">no longer broadcast<\/a>&nbsp;that week&#8217;s game between Arsenal and Manchester City, teams that are both popular in China.<\/li><li>\u00d6zil&#8217;s avatar was removed from video games in China, and even when China&#8217;s broadcaster put Arsenal games back on the air, sports commentators didn&#8217;t say his name.<\/li><li>Arsenal reacted by&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/news\/world\/soccer-star-mesut-zil-under-fire-criticizing-china-s-muslim-n1102386\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">distancing<\/a>&nbsp;itself from \u00d6zil&#8217;s post. \u00d6zil later&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.france24.com\/en\/20200813-ozil-blasts-arsenal-failure-to-back-his-uighur-muslim-comments\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">criticized<\/a>&nbsp;the club for not backing him and has since left Arsenal for Turkish club Fenerbah\u00e7e.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u00d6zil isn&#8217;t the only prominent player<\/strong>&nbsp;to publicly criticize what&#8217;s happening in Xinjiang.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>In December 2020, French player&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-europe-55265989\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Antoine Griezmann<\/a>&nbsp;said he was severing his relationship with Huawei after learning the company had developed facial recognition software that&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/technology-55634388\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">targeted<\/a>&nbsp;Uyghurs.<\/li><li>Griezmann had served as a brand ambassador for Huawei since 2017.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What to watch:&nbsp;<\/strong>Any sport with a significant fan base in China is likely to face similar pressure to stay silent on Xinjiang, Hong Kong or any other issue that the Chinese Communist Party deems off-limits.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian, author of\u00a0ChinaSoccer stars speak out on China&#8217;s Uyghurs \u2014 and pay a price &#8211; Axios Illustration: A\u00efda Amer\/Axios Some European soccer stars have &hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,4],"class_list":["post-2036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-ethnic-cleansing-crime-against-humanity-genocide","tag-human-rights"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/yuzb.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/yuzb.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/yuzb.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/yuzb.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/yuzb.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2036"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/yuzb.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2036\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2039,"href":"http:\/\/yuzb.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2036\/revisions\/2039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/yuzb.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/yuzb.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/yuzb.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}