Shanghai (AFP)

Is the NBA controversy falling back in China? The official press and Internet users were in any case measured Friday, the authorities seem to want to defuse the crisis, born of a tweet on Hong Kong.

The North American Basketball League has been in turmoil since the release last Friday by Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey of a message of support for Hong Kong protesters.

But after Thursday's triumph by Chinese fans at the Los Angeles Lakers and Brooklyn Nets in a preseason game played in Shanghai (east), censors and Chinese media seem to refrain from stirring up the conflict.

If they had published editorials inflamed earlier this week against Mr. Morey and the NBA, accused of supporting him, the official dailies did not mention very much the case Friday.

And for the first time in several days, none of the main discussions on the Weibo social network was directed against the NBA.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) allows citizens to express themselves online on a controversial topic when it serves their interests - the state press often leading the charge.

But the government, for fear of instability, sometimes puts an end to discussions that threaten to degenerate, forcing sites to erase any sensitive content.

Hu Xijin, the influential editor of the nationalist tabloid Global Times, said to have entered the upper echelons of power, said the NBA as Beijing now wanted to lower the pressure.

"I think the case will gradually come back in. The Global Times will not try to restart the debate," he told the New York Times newspaper. "I also hope that the American side, nothing will be done to aggravate the controversy."

Hong Kong is an ex-British colony returned to China in 1997 and now autonomous territory. Since June, sometimes violent protesters demand more autonomy in the face of Beijing's growing control.

The government and many Chinese netizens expressed dissatisfaction after Daryl Morey's tweet, perceived as a challenge to the country's territorial integrity.

Thursday's match was not broadcast in China by the CCTV public television, as a protest against the NBA which had supported the "freedom of expression" of the leader of the Houston Rockets.

The Los Angeles Lakers and Brooklyn Nets are expected to play their second exhibition match on Saturday in the metropolis of Shenzhen (south).

© 2019 AFP