China

Is Everyone Wrong About NBA/China/Hong Kong Except South Park and…Ted Cruz?

Nah, the senator's still wrong about Internet free speech, argue the editors on the Reason Roundtable podcast.

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Who ya gonna believe when it comes to the omni-faceted NBA/China/Hong Kong/censorship/whatever controversy, Gregg Popovich, Donald Trump, Steve Kerr, South Park, or…Sen. Ted Cruz (R–Texas)?

That's the first of a seemingly endless number of perhaps unanswerable questions on this week's Reason Roundtable podcast, featuring Nick Gillespie, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Peter Suderman, and Matt Welch. Other queries include: Does Red China's exportation of censorship disprove the hypothesis that trade and capitalism make people freer? Is President Trump's abandonment of the Syrian Kurds a welcome clarifying agent to the U.S. body politic or a haphazard atrocity-enabler cloaked in the insincere language of imperial withdrawal? Which Democrats are most set to embarrass themselves in this week's debate? Are Tom DeLay's hips capable of lying? And can Nick's enthusiasm for Columbus Day be contained, let alone stopped?

Audio production by Ian Keyser and Regan Taylor.

"Duet Musette" by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under CC BY 4.0

Relevant links from the show:

"The NBA's China Problem Gets Worse After 2 American Arenas Eject Hong Kong Supporters," by Eric Boehm

"Activision Blizzard Sided With Chinese Communists Against a 21-Year-Old Star Player," by Robby Soave

"China Banned South Park After the Show Made Fun of Chinese Censorship," by Robby Soave

"The NBA Cares More About Making Money in Mainland China Than Supporting Freedom in Hong Kong," by Mike Riggs

"Hong Kong Protesters Combat the Surveillance State," by Zach Weismueller

"Searching for New Atlantis in China," by Michael Gibson

"Ted Cruz Wants To Punish Google Because Execs Didn't Vote for Trump," by Elizabeth Nolan Brown

"We Can Learn 3 Lessons From Trump's Partial Syria Withdrawal," by Bonnie Kristian

"Bringing Them Home? Trump Commits 1,800 More Troops to the Middle East," by Eric Boehm

"Let the Kurds Come to America," by Shikha Dalmia

"Trump Brushes Off the Threat of Free ISIS Militants Because 'They're Going to be Escaping to Europe,'" by Elizabeth Nolan Brown

"U.S. Consents to a Turkish Invasion in Syria; Kurdish Forces Call It 'A Stab in the Back,'" by Elizabeth Nolan Brown

"Democratic Candidates Promise LGBT Voters They'll Punish All the Right People," by Scott Shackford

"Inside the Pro-Trump Conference Where a Violent Meme Made National News," by C.J. Ciaramella

"Summer TV Season Launches with HBO's Murdoch-esque Succession," by Glenn Garvin

"You Know All Those Stories About The Apocalypse Being Nigh? Well, Now That Tom DeLay Is Going To Be On Dancing With The Stars, I Believe Them," by Nick Gillespie

What are we consuming this week?

Katherine Mangu-Ward

  • Dancing with the Stars segments - specifically Tom Delay and Tucker Carlson appearances

Peter Suderman

Nick Gillespie