American basketball star Dwight Howard has been on the receiving end of fury from China after having referred to Taiwan as a country.
Howard appeared in a promotional video together with William Lai Ching-te, Taiwan’s vice president in which he announced a contest whose winner would spend a night in Taiwan’s presidential office.
Howard had been a player with the Los Angeles Lakers, and subsequently with the Taiwanese team, the Taoyuan Leopards.
In the video, he says: ‘Since I came to Taiwan, I’ve gained a whole new appreciation of this country.’
Basketball is a popular sport in China, and Howard is well known there. On Chinese social media sites – which are heavily monitored by the government – there was an outpouring of anger against Howard for his remarks. China views democratic Taiwan as part of its territory and is sensitive to any claims that it is a separate country.
This criticism was reiterated by Chinese media, which called for an apology.
Howard responded by saying: ‘If I offended anyone in China, I apologize. It was not my intention to harm anyone with what I said in the commercial.’
He said that he did not mean to state that Taiwan was an independent country.
China is a lucrative market for Western sporting and entertainment stars, and expressing views about the country which run contrary to the official line can have grave consequences. Several prominent figures have made grovelling public apologies for similar remarks.
[Image: Keith Allison – https://www.flickr.com/photos/keithallison/30483967610/, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=57165697]