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Özil, Arsenal, China and East Turkestan: Why Özil's statement is so explosive

2019-12-14T16:50:04.323Z


Did Mesut Özil simply speak out for a persecuted minority or did he support a terrorist organization? How important is China to Arsenal and the Premier League? The backgrounds.



What happened?

In short: Mesut Özil has denounced the persecution of the Uighurs and the silence of the majority Muslim states on social media. His club, the English Premier League club FC Arsenal, has distanced itself from Özil's contribution: "The content is Özil's personal opinion. As a football club, Arsenal has always adhered to the principle of not being politically involved," says one Club statement, which was published on the Chinese platform Weibo, among others. The English "Guardian" first reported about it.

You can find the wording of Özil's statement here.

Who are the Uighurs?

The Uyghurs are a Turkic, mostly Muslim minority from China. They have been located in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region, which has been formally controlled by China since the 18th century, for more than a thousand years. It is estimated that around eleven million Uighurs live there.

The region, which is rich in natural resources, is also so important for Beijing because China's flagship project, the new Silk Road, leads through it. China has been trying to assimilate the Uighurs for several years by specifically banning Muslim customs and destroying cultural and historical sites. United Nations experts suspect that China is detaining one to two million Uighurs in Xinjiang detention centers.

more on the subject

  • China expert Adrian Zenz on internment camps for Uyghurs
  • Who are the Uighurs and why is Beijing taking action against them?

Discussions have apparently flared up in China, above all, about the term "East Turkestan" used prominently by Özil. Why?

Özil added another component to his statement by addressing "Oh East Turkestan", which caused a sensation in China's social media. East Turkestan is a taboo term in China because of the problem described. It is used by political groups campaigning for the independence of the Xinjiang region from China. The expression has historical roots, but is currently also associated with the East Turkestan Islamic Movement. This movement, also known as the Turkistan Islamic Party, is classified as a terrorist organization in numerous countries.

On the one hand, Özil draws attention to the fate of the Uighurs and denounces violations of human rights. But he does this by addressing the people of East Turkestan. Through the special address he makes it clear that it is not about Uighurs in China in general, but specifically about Uyghurs in their own, in their view, occupied country.

Why was Arsenal forced to distance itself?

The Chinese market is very important for the Premier League. China's President Xi Jinping wants to turn the country into a football superpower and is investing heavily. The English league also benefits from this. With the Chinese streaming service PP Sports, it has signed the most lucrative TV contract abroad. According to various media reports, the three-year partnership, which has been running since this season, brings the league a total of $ 700 million, the equivalent of just under 630 million euros - around ten times the previous TV contract in China.

China is the largest foreign market for the Premier League. According to experts, the Premier League is the most popular foreign league in China. Accordingly, more than half of Chinese football fans are fans of one (or more) clubs from England. Arsenal also wants to benefit from the Premier League boom in China.

What connections does Arsenal have to China?

The club has been to China several times to prepare for the season, most recently two years ago when they played friendly matches in Shanghai (against FC Bayern) and Beijing. The club has opened an office in Singapore for the Asia-Pacific region and also counts the Chinese technology company BNN among its partners.

"We have a large and incredibly passionate fan base in China," said Arsenal's marketing director Vinai Venkatesham (who has now become club director) two years ago, referring to more than five million followers on Arsenal's Chinese social media channels ,

In the summer of last year, the club opened its first arsenal sports bar in the world - in Shanghai. "The restaurant is doing really well," said Hadrien Perazzini, who oversees Asia Pacific for Arsenal, to the Financial Times in January and announced the opening of a second bar in China.

"As a football club, Arsenal has always adhered to the principle of not being politically active," says the statement. Is it really like that?

Arsenal's reaction to Özil's statement shows how important good relations to China are for the club, since the club has just behaved differently. When full-back Héctor Bellerín called on young people to vote on the day of the British general election, and his statement on Twitter clearly stated #FuckBoris, there was no response from the club. It was not the first time that Bellerín was critical of Boris Johnson.

What effects can the dispute have?

It is still unclear. However, there has already been a similar case in the North American basketball league NBA. A few weeks ago, Rockets manager Daryl Morey had expressed solidarity with the demonstrators in Hong Kong, angering the league's largest foreign market. The response from Beijing grew to such an extent that even major Chinese sponsors of the Rockets bailed out. Fan products disappeared from Chinese websites, state television CCTV stopped broadcasting two NBA preparatory games, an NBA charity event was canceled, and a league that was partly panicked suddenly cost millions.

As in that case, it is again about national unity and territorial integrity, a point that China is defending by all means like no other. A hint that this topic could take on larger dimensions due to its historical dimensions: The short message service Weibo, which is monitored by the state and which, according to its own information, had 340 million registered users in the first quarter of 2017 and chose the arsenal for its explanation, is said to have threads of discussion to have been deleted by Özil's statement.

Source: spiegel

All sports articles on 2019-12-14

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