The American sports brand Nike has become the target of a domestic boycott in China, but the sports stars most directly involved have remained quiet compared to the stance of showbiz entertainers.
Some interpretations say they are waiting for the National Sports Commission to take a stand, while other analyses say that Nike has long been the biggest sponsor of the Chinese national team and, in addition, they cannot afford the dilemma of having no one to replace their high-end sports equipment after cutting.
Saturday (March 27) was the fourth day of the furore over China’s boycott of foreign investors who refused to use Xinjiang cotton, and the two giants of the Chinese sports world: the Chinese Basketball Association and the Chinese Football Association kept quiet in the face of strong demands on the Chinese network to terminate the contract with Nike.
The official microblogging site of the soccer newspaper posted on Saturday morning that since the outbreak of the Xinjiang cotton incident, the CFA and the professional league preparatory group were highly concerned and held an urgent internal meeting on the matter, expressing condemnation of Nike’s “wrongdoing” in the selection of cotton materials.
The report also said that for Nike’s “wrongdoing”, both the CFA and the preparatory group of the professional league will reserve the right to further deal with Nike’s contract.
The report made the Chinese network exuberant, believing that the CFA and Nike would not be far from the termination of the contract, and turned to the Chinese Basketball Association to take a stand. But it didn’t take long for Soccer Daily’s official Weibo account to quietly pull the story.
Nike is a big moneymaker in China’s sports industry
Nike is a long-Time sponsor of Chinese sports and is a major moneymaker in the country’s sports industry. Chinese domestic media previously reported that Nike had renewed its 10-year contract with the professional soccer league Chinese Super League in 2018 alone, with cash plus product sponsorship amounting to RMB 3 billion; the Chinese national soccer team also signed a 12-year, RMB 1 billion deal with Nike in 2015.
Nike, although now not a sponsor of the Chinese professional basketball CBA, also signed a 10-year sponsorship deal with the Chinese Basketball Association in 2018, the amount of which has so far remained a secret, and the Chinese national basketball team all wear Nike jerseys.
Nike is more than a Gold owner to the Chinese basketball world. Nike is sitting on huge basketball resources, and China has to turn to Nike to train its players, or to communicate with the NBA.
In addition, on January 8, 2020, Nike renewed its contract with the China Athletics Association for 12 years in advance.
So far, China’s most domestic concerns – the basketball association, the football association, and the athletic association have not made any official statements on the Xinjiang cotton incident.
Rumor has it that China’s star athletes are waiting for a directive from the Communist Party’s General Sports Federation
After facing Nike and other brands involved in the boycott wind, many showbiz stars quickly bye bye with foreign brands, but few sports stars have come out to take a stand.
According to domestic Chinese media, unlike the entertainment industry, such decisions need to be made by the basketball and soccer associations, and must first be approved by the big brother behind them: the Communist Party’s State General Administration of Sports.
You think it’s just a pair of shoes and an endorsement, but there are so many things to deal with behind the scenes,” said Mai Suifeng, a reporter for the Basketball Herald. It’s not realistic to expect individuals to come forward and take on everything, it’s better to be more forgiving to the players involved, everyone is waiting for the attitude of their superiors.”
Without Nike Chinese athletes’ professional equipment becomes a problem
Another shows that the athletes’ equipment needs are completely different from those of ordinary consumers. Nike, Adidas in the basic equipment of certain high-end design and technical content, there is no domestic Chinese brand of the same level to replace.
Moreover, Nike is the equipment supplier of many Chinese national teams, such as: Chinese men’s soccer team, Chinese men’s and women’s national basketball teams, Chinese national track and field teams, etc.; it is also the sponsor of the Chinese Super League and has signed up the highest-priced Chinese sports stars.
Whether it is sneakers or running shoes, there are no companies topping Nike and Adidas in the Chinese domestic market for the time being. These realistic constraints also lead to the fact that the athletes of these international level projects must also be confirmed to have access to the same level of equipment before they can cut ties.
Boycott of foreign brands farce, but smashed the rice bowl of their own Family
The boycott trend has seen some Chinese netizens come to webcasts selling Nike, Adidas and other brands to rant and rave for no reason, and demand that the broadcasts be taken off air, products be taken off the shelves and the anchors be threatened to “change jobs” by Saturday.
There are also some protesters in front of H&M stores, some of them are more agitated, shouting in the face of the mall staff to stop them, and finally taken away by the police.
Even Chinese bloggers have warned that behind the seeming boycott of other countries’ goods is actually “lifting a stone to smash their own feet”, Nike Live and H&M stores are mostly staffed by Chinese people, and most of the goods sold inside are Chinese.
A netizen also left a message on the Epoch Times website, saying, “At this time, the Chinese people should think rationally about the smashing and looting caused by the Chinese Communist Party‘s incitement to nationalism. Immigrate to the United States.
“Moreover, the reason why foreign companies do not use Xinjiang cotton is what, is not to use those products of forced labor of the people of Xinjiang, foreign companies are actually helping the Chinese people, foreign companies are boycotting the Chinese Communist Party’s human rights violations, then the Chinese people have what to boycott foreign companies, to boycott is also to boycott the originator of things – – the Chinese Communist Party. -The Chinese Communist Party.
“The Chinese Communist Party provokes nationalism in order to divert the people’s various grievances against the CCP. So, see the fact that the CCP is inciting the people to divert their ruling crisis, and stop being the CCP’s pawn and fighter.”
Expert: Mobilizing the masses to boycott is the CCP’s new continued revolution
In the latest episode of “Yokogawa Live,” Yokogawa, an expert in China studies, said that boycotting companies is generally an individual act of consumers, while large-scale collective boycotts often have the potential to hit the economy and threaten the government; unlike the CCP, which has a regular, once-in-a-while boycott against foreign countries or companies.
To be precise, he said, the CCP’s initiation or manipulation of mass boycotts of foreign brands is just a new form of “continuing revolution.
The timing of the boycott coincided with the EU-27 plus the U.S. and Britain and sanctions against four officials and one entity in Xinjiang, the Chinese Communist Party in addition to public retaliation against Europe and Britain, etc., but also targeted Western brands that openly do not use Xinjiang cotton to vent their personal anger.
“Retaliation between countries feel no relief, not hit each other, not reciprocal, because people MPs and academics in China do not have deposits mansions, and do not need visas to go to China. Hard gnawing can not hit the soft bar, the country to the company, the package win not lose. This is the idea of the Chinese Communist Party.” Yokogawa said.
Yokogawa said, Xinjiang cotton exports are not large, mainly in China’s domestic production of branded textiles and then exported; if the boycott of foreign clothing brands continue, the ultimate damage is China.
“The origin of the Chinese boycott is Xinjiang cotton …… now a widespread boycott of international brands, that is, (boycott) the part of China’s textile exports, is to force the rapid outward movement of the industrial chain, the impact will be China’s foreign exchange earnings and domestic employment. Both of these are what the Chinese Communist Party can least afford to lose at the moment.” He said.
Yokogawa also compared the differences between Chinese boycotts and foreign boycotts. For example: the yellow economic circle in Hong Kong, which boycotts individuals who cause harm to Hong Kong people, such as the boycott of Hong Kong mooncake maker Maxim’s Group, because its owner, Wu Shuqing, is a member of the Chinese Communist Party’s Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, supports sending China, and also goes to the United Nations to defend and conduct international public relations for the Hong Kong government and the Chinese Communist Party, supporting the same people.
There is also the boycott and support from the U.S. The boycott is of big companies that are fake news and openly anti-Trump, such as CNN; the support is of companies that are being suppressed because of their support for Trump, such as GOYA and MyPillow, all of which are spontaneous and directly related to themselves.
“But the biggest characteristic of the Chinese boycott is that it is not related to themselves, or even hurts their own interests.” He said.
He added that only leftist boycotts in the U.S. are much like those in China, such as MyPillow, which was threatened by some organizations on the left to take down chain businesses in the name of consumers.
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