The NBA claims it has terminated its relationship with a Chinese training facility located in Xinjiang, China.
The region is reportedly where one million Uighur Muslims are being held in concentration camps, according to a report published Wednesday by The Washington Free Beacon.
The @NBA announced it has terminated its relationship with a league-run training academy in Xinjiang, China—the region where communist nation is reportedly holding roughly one million Uyghur Muslims in concentration camps.
Via @CAndersonMO https://t.co/jnb9l6QFny— Free Beacon (@FreeBeacon) July 22, 2020
The announcement was made in a response to Republican Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn written by Deputy Commissioner Mark Tatum. Blackburn asked Tatum on June 30 what steps the NBA was taking to “shutter” the training facility located in “one of the world’s worst humanitarian zones.”
“The NBA has had no involvement with the Xinjiang basketball academy for more than a year, and the relationship has been terminated,” Tatum responded Tuesday. (RELATED: NBA Won’t Sell Custom Jerseys That Say ‘FreeHongKong’, Will Create Uniforms That Say ‘F*ckPolice’, ‘KillCops’)
Blackburn claimed “800,000 and possibly more than 2 million Uyghurs and ethnic Kazakhs” had been detained in concentration camps and subjected to “torture, physical abuse, and prolonged detention without trial.” She also stated China had used “sterilization treatments and forced abortions in a barbaric attempt to reduce Uyghur birth rates.”
Here is audio of the NBA store telling me I can’t buy a FreeHongKong jersey, but I can buy a KillCops jersey.
Eventually, once they realized what was happening, they claimed they couldn’t sell me anything because of high call volume and system error. pic.twitter.com/S9bdj9xgXU
— David Hookstead (@dhookstead) July 13, 2020
The news comes after the NBA’s most recent jersey debacle. It was at one point impossible to buy a customized jersey on the NBA website with the phrase “FreeHongKong.” At that time, however, users were allowed to customize jerseys with “F*ckPolice” and “KillCops.”
Both phrases have since been banned from the website.