Arsenal Facing Backlash Over Mesut Ozil's Swipe at China's Uighur Treatment

English Premier League soccer team Arsenal Football Club Plc faced an immediate backlash after one of its star players made critical comments about the treatment of the Uighur minority in China.

China’s state-run CCTV pulled a live broadcast of Arsenal’s match against Manchester City over the weekend, despite the club’s attempt to disassociate itself from the remarks. Instead, it aired a prerecorded game between Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal’s local rival, and the Wolverhampton Wanderers. Manchester City beat Arsenal 3-0 in the Sunday match.

The retaliation following the comments from Arsenal’s Mesut Ozil highlights the risks of running afoul of China’s political sensitivities. Citizens on social media platforms have been swift to criticize companies and individuals perceived to cross the line when it comes to China’s policies. In October, a National Basketball Association general manager’s defense of pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong led to backlash from Beijing.

In Instagram and Twitter posts, Ozil accused Muslims of staying silent over the mistreatment of the Uighurs, becoming one of the most prominent public figures to condemn Beijing on the issue. “Korans are burned. Mosques are closed. Their schools are banned,” said the Muslim player, who is often seen praying on the field, “but the Muslim community is silent.”

The club responded with a post on popular Chinese platform Weibo, where it has more than 5 million followers, distancing itself from the player’s comments.

“The content published is all Ozil’s personal opinion,” the team said. “Arsenal, as a football club, has always adhered to the principle of not involving itself in politics.” The post attracted almost 27,000 likes and over 10,000 comments, with a number of Weibo users saying that the club needed to take further action. One user posted an image of an Arsenal jersey emblazoned with Ozil’s name cut up with a pair of scissors.

China’s foreign ministry said Monday that Ozil “seems to have been blinded by some fake news.”

“What he is not aware of is that the Chinese government protects its citizens’ rights of religious belief, including the Uighur people. He doesn’t know that the measures taken by the Chinese government to counter-terrorism have been endorsed and supported by the local people,” foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said at a briefing in Beijing.

The topic was not listed among the top trending on Weibo on Monday, but that may be due to web censors discouraging Uighur-related discussion.

Arsenal may now potentially face more reprisal from China and Chinese soccer fans, which number 187 million according to Nielsen estimates. The club, which also operates a sports bar and restaurant in China, announced plans in early 2019 to expand its chain as it seeks to grow its fan base in the region.

Chinese President Xi Jinping launched the crackdown in the far west Xinjiang region after a string of deadly terrorist attacks on civilians starting in 2013. Those policies have been at the center of global criticism of the country’s rights record, with a United Nations assessment estimating that tens of thousands to “upwards of 1 million” Uighurs have been detained in China. The government has said its crackdown is fighting separatism and religious extremism.

China blacked out some NBA games in October after the Houston Rockets’s General Manager Daryl Morey posted a tweet in support of Hong Kong demonstrators. He deleted the message, but China took umbrage and the NBA’s sponsors in the country cut ties with the U.S. league. Arsenal’s response mirrors the post by the basketball team’s billionaire owner, Tilman Fertitta, who said Morey didn’t speak for the Rockets.

Western companies also have had to tread carefully not to draw the ire of consumers in one of their biggest markets. Fashion retailers Christian Dior SE, Givenchy and Dolce & Gabbana have come under fire for moves perceived to run afoul of local political sensitivities.

More recently, Chinese video-sharing app TikTok suspended, and then later restored, the account of a user after she posted viral videos critical of the Chinese government’s actions against Uighurs in Xinjiang. The popular app is owned by ByteDance Inc.

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