Boston Celtics center Enes Kanter is decrying China’s human rights abuses against the Uighurs, publicly calling for Chinese President Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party to shut down the slave labor camps and free the people.
“Stop the genocide now,” Kanter declared in the video message shared Friday.
The NBA player referred to Jinping as the “heartless dictator of China.”
Kanter’s strong condemnation regarding China’s brutal oppression of the Uighurs came after he released another video earlier this week describing Jinping as a “brutal dictator,” while denouncing China over the issue of Tibet.
“Brutal dictator of China, Xi Jinping, I have a message for you and your henchmen. I will say it again, again, and again, loud and clear; I hope you hear me. Free Tibet, free Tibet, free Tibet,” Kanter said in a video released on Wednesday.
While the athlete did not play in his team’s game on Wednesday night, he sported footwear that included the phrase “Free Tibet,” according to the Associated Press.
China appears to have retaliated for Kanter’s outspoken condemnation, as Tencent has reportedly targeted Celtics games so that prior games and upcoming games will not be available for viewing.
The AP reported that “Tencent is not showing current or archived Boston Celtics games on its platforms,” while the New York Times reported that “recent Celtics games were marked as unavailable for replay through Tencent” and “The website for Tencent Sports also indicated that upcoming Celtics games would not be livestreamed.”
But Kanter, apparently undaunted, shared the video on Friday blasting China’s oppression of the Uighurs, which he characterized as among “the worst human right abuses in the world today.”
