The Chinese regime is “a real threat to the world” right now, said former NBA player Enes Kanter Freedom during an interview with NTD news, a sister media outlet of The Epoch Times, at a special webinar on “The Case for Decoupling From China ” on Capitol Hill.
“No one can invade [the] USA from the outside, but they [the Chinese regime] are trying to invade the USA from the inside by trying to take over Wall Street, trying to take over [the] sports world, NBA, Hollywood, Big Tech, even the Congress,” Freedom said at the online event on Sept. 20.
During the web seminar, the human rights advocate recounted how he lost his basketball career for raising awareness of the regime’s human rights issues by wearing shoes with various works of art including slogans such as “Free China, Free Tibet” during NBA games.
Freedom was released by the Houston Rockets soon after being traded from the Boston Celtics on Feb. 10. He was one of the highest-rated backup centers statistically in the NBA, and believes that his activism cost him his career.
As Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, on Sept. 20 again called for reinstating cooperation between China and the United States, Freedom said the regime needs to rectify its human rights behavior first.
“First of all, they need to understand, while we’re talking, genocide [is] happening. … They need to free millions of people. And also they need to stop harassing our Congress and the Tibetans and Chinese people, and all these people,” Freedom said.
“If they want to do anything like that, first of all, they need to know how to act.”
The athlete-activist emphasized that “Human life comes before everything.”
According to Freedom, his teammates, coaches, fans, and everyone from the NBA have given him the cold shoulder for his outspokenness against the CCP.
That makes him feel that his path to fight against the regime has been a very lonely one, he said, but affirmed that he would continue with his activism work.
Born in Switzerland to Turkish parents, Freedom was raised in Turkey and moved to the United States as a teenager. He recently launched the Enes Kanter Freedom Foundation to help fight for religious freedom and human rights around the world.
“I feel really sorry for Chinese people, Chinese citizens … they have to deal with one of the biggest … dictators out there in the world,” he said.
“I have no problem with the Chinese people. Our problem is with the Chinese government because they are a real threat to the world.”
“We have to do whatever we can to fight against this dictatorship,” Freedom said.
Nhat Hoang and Masooma Haq contributed to this report.
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Hannah Ng is a reporter covering US and China news. She holds a master’s degree in international and development economics from the University of Applied Science Berlin.
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