Lastly, Freedom speaks directly to Ming. “Listen, Yao Ming, you or your Communist Party cannot buy me. I do not need a luxury tour of China,” he says. “I want the world to see the real side of China under [the] cultish Chinese Communist Party’s brutal rule, [with] slave labor camps and millions living in fear because of inescapable government surveillance.” Freedom concludes the video, saying he will certainly buy his own ticket to China if Ming will agree to show him the real China of the Uyghurs, Tibet, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Shuai.
Kudos to Enes Kanter Freedom for such a clear and clever response. It’s refreshing to see a high-profile celebrity refuse to bow to financial or social pressures and instead do and say what is right. It’s a good bet Yao Ming and the Communists wish Freedom would quietly go away. As of publication time, Ming and the Chinese government have yet to respond.
To invert the Godfather, Kanter-Freedom is making him an offer he can’t accept.