Did China just dunk on the NBA?

The NBA’s recent geopolitical crisis, sparked by Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey’s tweet supporting Hong Kong protesters, highlights the precarious tension between American corporate values and the Chinese market. While the league initially struggled to balance its progressive domestic stance with its massive Chinese viewership, the incident exposes a deeper, long-standing strategic failure. Since the 1990s, U.S. policy operated on the assumption that economic engagement would inevitably foster democracy in China. Instead, corporations like Disney and the NBA have become increasingly dependent on Chinese revenue, leading to preemptive self-censorship and the export of autocratic influence. This reliance on Chinese production and consumer markets now threatens American sovereignty, forcing a necessary reevaluation of how businesses manage dependencies on a powerful, authoritarian global competitor.