Posted on 01/25/2022 8:02:01 AM PST by george76
Officials back down after being charged of “kowtowing to China” to please sponsors..
Forty Eight hours after demanding that spectators at the Australian Open remove clothing and hand over signs protesting China’s Communist government, officials have reversed course and said that the garments will be allowed, with a caveat.
As we reported yesterday, the shirts and banner read “Where is Peng Shuai?”, referring to the previous disappearance of the Chinese tennis star who had accused a high ranking CCP official of sexually assaulting her.
After not being seen for weeks, Shuai reappeared looking worse for wear and immediately retracted the assault claims.
Tennis Australia officials attempted to seize the signs and have the spectators take off the shirts, saying that “it’s a condition of entry” at the tournament to not brandish “political slogans”.
However, after a huge backlash garnered media attention, and the likes of tennis legend Martina Navratilova calling Tennis Australia’s actions “cowardly,” officials have flip flopped.
TA head Craig Tiley told the Australian Financial Review that those wearing the “Where is Peng Shuai?” t-shirts would be allowed to enter on the condition that they were “not coming as a mob to be disruptive but are peaceful.”
“It’s all been a bit lost in translation from some people who are not here and don’t really know the full view… The situation in the last couple of days is that some people came with a banner on two large poles, and we can’t allow that,” Tiley added, noting that banners and signs will still be confiscated.
Australian Defence Minister Peter Dutton labelled the ban on the Peng Shuai t-shirts “deeply concerning” and called for TA to “speak up” regarding the sexual harassment issue.
...
New South Wales Liberal Senator Hollie Hughes also charged that TA is “kowtowing to China” because several Chinese companies are major sponsors of the Australian Open. She also labeled the body’s actions over Novak Djokovic as ‘disgraceful’.
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Presumably Djokovic t-shirts are still banned from the tournament.
I’m so turned off by this Australian totalitarian nonsense that I won’t watch the tournament, especially because a favorite of mine, Novak Djokovic, was deported. Australia has gone off the deep end.
Australia seems to be devolving into a nation of agitated wimps.
Surfing legend Kelly Slater not axed.. then blocked, too.
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4032405/posts
My, my how Australia has fallen.
Our civilization needs to be freed of China’s lackeys. These traitors seem to infest about any organization you can imagine.
It’s great to be king.
wy69
Australia secured its borders against somebody who tried to enter Australia illegally.
I am amazed at the number of so-called conservatives on Freerepublic who seem to think border laws should be waived because somebody is good at tennis.
Incidentally, most of that mess was caused by a private company - Tennis Australia - lying to Djokovic about his right to enter the country. That’s the same private company that tried to ban any sign of protest against the Chinese government and has now backed down. But for some reason, a lot of Americans seem to think this private company is either
(A) an organisation that FIGHTS FOR FREEDOM!!
or
(B) the actual Australian government, because they blame the Australian government for everything this company does.
What they are is a set of amoral arseholes who just want to make money and will do whatever they think will improve their bottom line - try and smuggle a superstar across the border, relying on his fame to intimidate border security into letting him in without the proper documentation - or kowtow to China over the safety of another tennis player.
TA uses the players as pawns to make money. Pure and simple. And idiots turn that into things it’s not.
I am amazed at the number FReepers who acquiesce to this political pandemic and vax mandates not realizing these are tools of the Leftist trade to make free people servile.
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