Kelly as the cspan bus continues our 2020 battleground states tour. As always, we take your calls and you can join the conversation on facebook and twitter as well. Washington journal is next. Host here are some of the latest headlines coming from that back and forth between the National Basketball association and china. The senators call on the nba to cancel games in china amid controversy. Spat thatchina nba underscores how far negotiations have deteriorated and this from a roll call, republicans accusing the nba of cowardice in the flareup with china. In our first hour, we want to get your thoughts on this backandforth between the National Basketball association and china about that tweet concerning hong kong. Did the nba kowtow to china . You can let us know your thoughts in this hour. 2027488000 if you live in the eastern and central time zones. And if you live in the mountain then pacific time zones, it is 2027488001. Ou can text us at 2027488003 att on our twitter feed cspanwj. You can post on our Facebook Page, too, at facebook. Com cspan. A piece calling on the nba to business never forget on 9 11, the d ckets owner distance comments, stopping short of fully condemning morey. Tuesday morning, adam silver offereda press release more coherent thoughts. Here is a bit of that with adam silver. [video clip] i issued a statement shortly before this press conference because i felt there was a lot of misunderstanding about our position. I thought we had been somewhat straightforward, but i can understand given translations the headtations ues of the nba are two what i try to suggest is i understand there are consequences from that exercise of, in essence, his freedom of to livend we will have with those consequences. It is my hope for our chinese fans and our partners in china, they will see those remarks in the context of now a three decade, if not longer, relationship and that we have done in partnership with the chinese Basketball Association and department of education and many different businesses in china, i feel, enormous amount to build the sport to work in communities. Hat is where we find ourselves as a league, we are not willing to compromise those values and again, i am sympathetic to our interest here and our partners who are upset and i dont think it is inconsistent, on one hand, atbe sympathetic to them and the same time, stand by our principles. Host this entered the realm of politics between ted cruz, marco rubio, and josh hawley were condemned condemned the league and the rockets for silencing the team manager in response to ongoing protests for deleting the message. The missouri senator said he was disgusted by the league upon actions. More from josh hawley saying doing business with china is one thing. You know better and the people of this country deserve better. Going on to say the league said yesterday the comments deeply offended many of our friends and fans in china, which is regrettable. Suppression and Political Violence carried out by the chinese the good people of hong kong. That is some of the reactions. We want to get your reaction in this first hour. In the central time zones, 2027488000. Mountain at pacific time zones, 2027488001. You can text us and post on our twitter feed and Facebook Pages as well. We start in california and we will hear from todd. What do you think about this back and forth between the nba . Nd china pc as thee nba is as nfl and it will hurt that league. Aroundnded people all should support hong kong, but not the nba. Dream on green and steph curry suggesting owners are like slaveholders, another whacked out take on slave relations. Not chairman xi. It is really very offensive. Its all on tv for all of us to see. Host do you think this will result in boycotts and the like we saw against the nfl during the opening ceremonies and the American Flag and things like that . Questionas your suggests, i think it is certainly going to hurt the nfl nfl, excuse me. Host that is todd. We will hear from rich in illinois. You are next up. Caller thanks for taking my call. The nba is a business and they are trying to sell something to somebody and you cannot sell something to somebody if they dont want it and they if they dont want it and you are trying to sell it, you have to negotiate some kind of deal that you can make money and they can get something they want. That is business as usual. In the past, when you had to deal with these Companies Like china that did not want stuff, you had to go the extra mile to get them to even be on board trying to buy your product and this is why we talk about past experiences like china. Yeah, you had to give them a better deal to get them on board with any kind of a deal at all. If you want to sell something to somebody, make it worth their while. Host eric from providence, rhode island. Good morning. Caller good morning to you. My wife is from taiwan, second wife and she is completely i. Osed to this and so am furthermore, absolutely amazing. China will be the number one power in the world within 20 years, you cannot stop it, the people are very aspirational, very bright, very disciplined. It is going to happen. I am going to be dead by then. Thepoint i want to make is United States creates a lot of these problems. They created communist china in 1949 because they did not really back and that ultimately created before that, north korea. One final point. We were allied with stalin in. Orld war 2 he was uncle joe, the worst mass murder of all time. The most brutal was stalin. He made hitlers look like a little tyker. Host specify what you are opposed to, the actions of the nba, the actions of china, what specifically were you opposed to . Caller the actions of the nba. They kowtowed to china because everything in this world bought and blind is money. Host that is eric in providence. If you go to cnbc, there is a piece taking a look at reaction from china saying when it comes to the nba, it is the wakeup call the world needed saying chinas increasing Economic Engagement with three countries of the west were supposed to open the country to more moxie and freedom. The government has used growing wealth and economic influence to suppress the population more, build up its military, and increase influence abroad with programs. Ture many fans who may have been excited or indifferent about increasing business connections with china are asking weather promoting the game is worth the concession. Fans of the Brooklyn Nets are asking that and scrutinizing the new owner over that. Pittsburgh, you are next up, go ahead. Caller i am opposed. It shows a lot of hypocrisy. Nobody is talking about these black players going over and apologizing. Lebron james hates this president. They are all right with what the chinese are doing to hong kong. Shooting them, beating them with clubs. The hong kong people, i have seen American Flags there. Something these basketball players never carry. It is amazing the way they are acting. Lebron james got a billiondollar deal with nike. Its all about money. Lets cry about black people getting beat up all the time by cops. Host conrad in North Carolina, good morning. Caller it is statements like i just heard makes americans hypocrites. The thing is, we can see everybody elses fault, but not our own. If we are so patriotic that we want to support hong kong and stop the nba from playing in china, why dont we ball boycott walmart . All the companies importing chinese goods we use every day. If we are going to be a patriot, lets be patriotic in every phase of american life. Lets stop buying at walmart, stop buying cars that have chinese goods and lets make america stand for the ideas it was founded on. This is my statement to all these hypocrites calling in this morning. Host that is some of the reaction from this backandforth going on between the nba and china. You can call us on phone lines. If you want to tweet us, you can do so at 2027488003. All we ask is you put your name and city and state you are from and if you want to post on social media, twitter is cspanwj. Our Facebook Page is at facebook. Com cspan. Several responses on facebook. Mccarver saying People Better start paying attention, the chinese have many institutions paid off including government officials, hollywood, and large corporations. Their censorship is being imported here. Sean williams saying i understand how these republican senators feel about the nba kowtowing to a brutal foreign regime. Says they shorted, cannot have freedom of speech in greedthe nba supersedes our rights again. As all of our institutions remember when they used to care about tibet. That is some of the responses from our Facebook Page. One of the responses came from james harden, spoke about this the idea of what was going onto chinese fans and team management. Here are some of his comments. [video clip] we love china. We love playing there. We go there once or twice a year. They show us support and love. We appreciate them as a fan base and we love everything they are about and we appreciate the support they give us individually and as an organization. From the editorial of the New York Times this morning under the headline when it comes to china, silence is golden saying it should be perfectly clear paying playing basketball in china is perfectly political. The nba has weighed chinas human rights abuses against chinas potential as a source of revenue and decided it can live with state policies like the detention of hundreds of thousands of chinese muslims and that is just some of the comments from the editors of the New York Times. This is from jacksonville, florida. Good morning, go ahead. Caller excellent. I am for the United States and the people of china to have freedom. I say freedom, excuse my bad english. I wish for people to have freedom to do what they do and play what they want without harming anybody. It doesnt matter the state, the community or whatsoever, this is all i have to say and i thank you so much for that. Host what about these initial statements that led to this story . What do you think about how the nba handled this . Caller i am not sure, to be honest with you, but they do handle it. I bet you they would handle it in a way that china does not want freedom to go against their government. T should the nba do shot do business with china . Caller force it. This is not violence. Means intellectuality. Force it on the people, not doing it by violence or anything like that. Host lets hear from robert in massachusetts, you are next up. Caller hello . Host you are on, go ahead. Caller i am appalled by the hypocrisy of all these people calling in disparaging the nba for what they did when the president of the United States, President Trump, has said nothing about hong kong, not one word. I have read and all the impeachment inquiries and test messages that President Trump promised president xi he would stay silent on hong kong. He has not said one word. Everybody is worried about what lebron james said. Lebron james and the players in the nba have no power. Host the nba management has power, what do you think about how they are handling it . Caller as far as how they are handling it, i thought it was wrong they apologized for what the coach said, but by the same ght and the power of the leader of the free world is what counts, weather the nba is doing business there, i think that opens things up when the people of china are aware and get to meet actual americans who are free, i think that is a good, positive thing despite what the government is doing. Host you wouldnt call for a boycott of the nba over the situation . Caller no, i wouldnt. I would not call for a boycott of the nba over this. Host why not . Caller i just think we do so much business over there, like one of the callers said. How Many Americans stopped buying products from walmart and target and all these places that sell chinese goods and the president is saying nothing about you would think any other president would have been on the side of the people of hong kong and the president hasnt even done anything, he is kowtowing to china. We will jump on the nba, why . Because the leak is full of black players. I am appalled. The president needs to stand up and say the people of hong kong autonomyr freedom and from china. Host samuel, you are next. Caller i think this is a perfect example of why we need andrew yangs addition of new measurements to our gdp. This has been an abusive authoritarian power for months now. We have not seen it break headlines the way it has with this nba thing and that shows it has not become an issue until it is economic and it is in the dollar of the section of the economy that the lay person interacts with. If we added measurements to the gdp, we would be able to see these things on a media scale in a much more tangible, numerical, and empirical way faster than we can with this kind of news cycle. Host when it comes to the nbas actions, you are saying this is a purely economical move . Caller it is more complicated than that, but i think the economic factor of it broke the news faster than the human rights factor has. Host when you say it is more complicated, how do you mean . Caller honestly, i havent followed headlines that closely. This is an issue that annoyed me. My understanding is they are continuing to do business with china through the Human Rights Violations and that is peoples disagreements with them. If that is the case, there are tons of companies doing that already and i dont understand why they would be such a target of hate. In maryland. Hello. Caller good morning. Thanks for taking my call. I absolutely oppose the nba supporting chinas actions because they are telling everyone they are supporting the Chinese Governments brutality against the hong kong people. Me to see the chinese actions is unacceptable and i am trumpbed our president has not done anything. The leadership we are in, that we are not speaking up to protect countries to the freedoms they have agreed to before they sign the contract before they took it back from taipei. Host what do you think is the best course of action for the nba . What should they do in this matter . Caller i dont think they theye focusing on really should focus on human rights because right now, the hong kong people are just suffering. Seen my family host finish your thought. Caller i have seen my family in hong kong and they are innocent people. These people are just going from work or from home and vice versa, they are getting beat up on the train station and in the street. These people are innocent and they are my family. And marilyns jay giving thoughts on this back and forth between the nba and china. Asking if the nba kowtowed to china. Josh hawley made reference to that. You can add your thoughts to the mix as well. Opedll street journals pages talks about this issue in a place piece called the nba can beat china. Notice chinas hysterical response has been a tad overblown for a solitary tweet from a single behindthescenes functionary of a single team. Plenty of chinese rather than wanting to take away hong kongs rule of law want to see it replicated on the mainland. Fans arely chinese nba disproportionately represented among the country possible even if they are not prudently speaking up right now. The nba may want to keep this in mind before it gravels any further. Here is more from the press nbaerence from the commissioner, adam silver. [video clip] cctvis afternoon, announced because of my remarks freedomng daryl moreys of expression, not the substance, but his freedom of expression, they were no longer going to air the akersnets preseason games scheduled for later this week. Again, it is not something we expected to happen. Butink it is unfortunate, if that works for the consequences of us adhering to our values, it is important we adhere to those values. My plan all along has been to travel to shanghai tomorrow and i plan to attend the lakersnets game thursday night. It is my hope when i am in shanghai, i can meet with the appropriate officials and discuss where we stand and again, put those remarks from daryl morey and my remarks in an appropriate context of a manydecades long relationship and see if we can find Mutual Respect for each others political systems and beliefs. I am a realist as well and i recognize that this this issue may not die down so quickly. Morey putting out a couple of tweets in response to what was ongoing saying this, i did not intend my tweets would cause any offense to the rockets fans or friends of mine in china, i was merely voicing one thought based on one interpretation of one complicated event. I have had a lot of opportunity to hear and consider other perspectives. I have always appreciated the significance support our chinese fans and sponsors provided and i would hope those upset with understand offending or misunderstanding them was not my intention. My tweets are my own and in no way represent the rockets or the nba. This is from sun city, california. Roy, you are next up. Caller thank you for taking my call. I am going to express the same thing some of your other callers have expressed. Unless the president himself who has said i hope they work it out if he takes that attitude, why are we picking on the nba . Walmart, all these other entities that do business with price. They should pay a as one caller mentioned, the only reason some of these people are calling in today want to pick on the nba i heard one guy bring up lebron james he is just a player. A basketball player. Host you are saying the nba should pay a price in this . Caller no. I dont think they should. Everybody else, if the nba is going to pay a price, so should walmart. So should trump and his goods. Everybody. If we are going to take a national stance, it should come from the top. Host aside from other corporations, what did you think of the nbas handling of this . Caller basically, i think they are doing the right thing. They are in business. We are going to do it as a country, as a nation altogether, meaning all the businesses, all the business out s in china pull host because you said they are doing the right thing you are saying for their actions, this is purely economics for what they are doing as far as the right thing . Caller yes. The president feels it is economic. He is trying to make a deal with china. What is the difference . Int lets hear fro