Western nations are beginning to push back on moneyed interests espousing authoritarian values within their borders, as shown in a recent ESPN expose of Brooklyn Nets owner Joe Tsai (蔡崇信), Taiwanese commentators said this weekend.
The US sports news organization on Thursday published a feature on Tsai, a Taipei-born billionaire and cofounder of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba.
Calling him “the face of [the] NBA’s uneasy China relationship,” ESPN detailed his links to China’s techno-authoritarian expansion through Alibaba and his defense of controversial policies in Hong Kong and Xinjiang.
Photo: AP
It also investigated his role as a mediator for Chinese interests in the US, particularly in the maelstrom following a 2019 post on Twitter by then-Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey in support of Hong Kong protesters.
While publicly accusing Morey of “supporting a separatist movement,” Tsai was himself accused of pushing for the NBA to fire Morey in “part of a behind-the-scenes drama that reached the White House and has not been previously disclosed,” ESPN reported.
After mounting pressure from Washington, NBA commissioner Adam Silver issued a statement affirming the league’s commitment to freedom of expression, and Morey did not face any punishment.
To Taiwanese commentators, the report exposes declining patience within the US and other Western democracies for financial interests superseding human rights.
Yen Chien-fa (顏建發), a professor of business administration at Chien Hsin University of Science and Technology, on Saturday said it is becoming clear that “democratic values are more important” than economic interests, especially in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Yen also pointed to Tesla founder Elon Musk’s recent criticism of Twitter for prioritizing money over free speech. Musk said the platform must be taken private to realize “its potential to be the platform for free speech around the globe.”
There has also been a business exodus from China over human rights concerns in Xinjiang and Hong Kong, Yen said.
Tsai is facing an investigation over his alleged ties to rights abuses, as universal values increasingly become the standard for evaluating business interests, he said.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lai Jui-lung (賴瑞隆) expressed concern over authoritarian sympathizers using the freedoms afforded them by democracies to push their own agenda.
As the US is searching for ways to counteract their influence, Taiwan must also pick up the pace to prevent a minority group of people “fighting against freedom and democracy in the name of freedom and democracy,” he said.
What Taiwan needs is someone to fight back, Yen said.
Growing criticism of Tsai would reverberate in Taiwan as the trend that began in the US spreads to other countries, he said.
Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung and Taoyuan would issue a decision at 8pm on whether to cancel work and school tomorrow due to forecasted heavy rain, Keelung Mayor Hsieh Kuo-liang (謝國樑) said today. Hsieh told reporters that absent some pressing reason, the four northern cities would announce the decision jointly at 8pm. Keelung is expected to receive between 300mm and 490mm of rain in the period from 2pm today through 2pm tomorrow, Central Weather Administration data showed. Keelung City Government regulations stipulate that school and work can be canceled if rain totals in mountainous or low-elevation areas are forecast to exceed 350mm in
EVA Airways president Sun Chia-ming (孫嘉明) and other senior executives yesterday bowed in apology over the death of a flight attendant, saying the company has begun improving its health-reporting, review and work coordination mechanisms. “We promise to handle this matter with the utmost responsibility to ensure safer and healthier working conditions for all EVA Air employees,” Sun said. The flight attendant, a woman surnamed Sun (孫), died on Friday last week of undisclosed causes shortly after returning from a work assignment in Milan, Italy, the airline said. Chinese-language media reported that the woman fell ill working on a Taipei-to-Milan flight on Sept. 22
TRAFFIC SAFETY RULES: A positive result in a drug test would result in a two-year license suspension for the driver and vehicle, and a fine of up to NT$180,000 The Ministry of Transportation and Communications is to authorize police to conduct roadside saliva tests by the end of the year to deter people from driving while under the influence of narcotics, it said yesterday. The ministry last month unveiled a draft of amended regulations governing traffic safety rules and penalties, which included provisions empowering police to conduct mandatory saliva tests on drivers. While currently rules authorize police to use oral fluid testing kits for signs of drug use, they do not establish penalties for noncompliance or operating procedures for officers to follow, the ministry said. The proposed changes to the regulations require
1.4nm WAFERS: While TSMC is gearing up to expand its overseas production, it would also continue to invest in Taiwan, company chairman and CEO C.C. Wei said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) has applied for permission to construct a new plant in the Central Taiwan Science Park (中部科學園區), which it would use for the production of new high-speed wafers, the National Science and Technology Council said yesterday. The council, which supervises three major science parks in Taiwan, confirmed that the Central Taiwan Science Park Bureau had received an application on Friday from TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, to commence work on the new A14 fab. A14 technology, a 1.4 nanometer (nm) process, is designed to drive artificial intelligence transformation by enabling faster computing and greater power
RSS