Illustration: Chen Xia/GT

When asked about Boston Celtics player Enes Kanter Freedom's recent activism at a press conference in Beijing on Monday, Yao Ming, China's most famous basketball player, said he would invite Freedom to visit China, "then he may have a more comprehensive understanding of us." Yao's magnanimous invitation was a reflection of China's composure against abuses. As long as Freedom can view China through an objective angle, it won't be hard for him to reach objective conclusions. 

Freedom was described by some as a "hero" for his radical China remarks focusing on topics such as Xinjiang and Xizang, which are now new "politically explosive" issues in the US. His so-called outspoken statements have no substantial difference from what the Western media has used to smear China. Many think Freedom is clout-chasing. As Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson commented, Freedom's "wrong remarks are not worth refuting."

Freedom said Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James takes "money over morals" because of James' silence on Xinjiang issues. 

What about himself? 

What can one person get in return by hyping "politically correct" issues? Money, prestige, or US citizenship? Freedom may know the answer best. 

As Freedom drew headlines with his "outspoken" remarks, "Enes Kanter is CIA" became a meme around the net, with many speculating about his links to Washington. Danny Haiphong, contributing editor to the Black Agenda Report, told the MintPress, "Kanter's mentor Fathullah Gulen protected CIA agents and his anti-China operation comes just weeks after the CIA announced a renewed focus on China." Anyway, Freedom apparently enjoys whatever he is doing now. 

Freedom said on Wednesday he will accept Yao's invitation. But his response was full of Western media-style bias and presupposition toward China. He told CNN, "I don't need a lecture through China, I don't want propaganda. I want to actually get to see the real China and show the whole world what's going on." It's hoped Freedom can have the courage to tell the Western force behind him truth about Xinjiang, which is totally different from Western propaganda. 

Recently, Freedom targeted Chamath Palihapitiya, a minority owner of the Golden State Warriors. He called Palihapitiya a "shame" because the latter said "Let's be honest, nobody, nobody cares about what's happening to the Uygurs, okay?" - The remarks were clearly against the new "political correctness" in the US. Like those politicians and media who criticized Palihapitiya, Freedom also deliberately ignored why Palihapitiya said so. 

"The reason I think that is we don't do enough domestically to actually express that view in tangible ways. So until we actually clean up our own house, the idea that we step outside our borders, with us morally virtue-signaling about someone else's human rights record, is deplorable," Palihapitiya said.

This being the case, Palihapitiya hit the nerve of those who then got fierce on him. As Americans cannot handle their own affairs properly, how can they really care about Uygur people living in China's Xinjiang thousands of kilometers away? Because they don't need to shoulder responsibility for the welfare of Xinjiang people. 

Be it Freedom or those anti-China media and politicians, they cannot change the fact of the mess in US human rights conditions, no matter how hard they try to cover up or shift attention to China. And they cannot change the nature of their "political correctness," which puts many things else over moral. Worse, they viciously criticize the voices that are not "politically correct" and bring their so-called human rights and freedoms into shame.

A vivid example, after Freedom changed his last name from Kanter, he told Fox News host Tucker Carlson that Americans criticizing their country "should just keep their mouths shut." In other words, this so-called fighter for freedom on one hand upholds the banner of freedom, while fanatically taking the freedom away from others - especially Americans' own freedom to speech.