DESIGNER

Ian Chuang

PROFILE/DESCRIPTION

Article text courtesy of nytimes.com: Hong Kong Protests Put N.B.A. on Edge in China This weekend, a Houston Rockets executive unwittingly exposed an issue that may have been too much for the National Basketball Association: support for protesters in Hong Kong, which infuriated China. “Fight for freedom, stand with Hong Kong,” read an image posted on Twitter by Daryl Morey, the general manager of the Rockets. It was quickly deleted. But the damage was done, and the N.B.A. quickly moved to smooth things over in a lucrative market that generates millions of dollars in revenue. The league said it was “regrettable” that many Chinese fans were offended by the comment. The issue is familiar to Hollywood studios, major companies and individual athletes chasing business in a country with 1.4 billion people, and the N.B.A.’s reaction reflects a corporate sensitivity toward China’s low tolerance for criticism of its political system.