Washington (AFP)

"Mr. brutal dictator XI JINPING and the Chinese government. Tibet belongs to the Tibetans! I support my Tibetan brothers and sisters, and I support their calls for freedom," wrote Enes Kanter, the new backbone of the Celtics, on Twitter and Facebook.

His message is accompanied by a photo of shoes adorned with Tibetan iconography and the slogan "Free Tibet", worn during the first game of the 2021-2022 season against the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden, to which he did not. did not participate.

Asked about this, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin replied, "His ridiculous allegation does not even deserve to be refuted. Our friends from all countries are welcome to visit Tibet without prejudice and with confidence. an objective look, "he said at a press conference.

On the Chinese giant Tencent's sports site, the Celtics' future matches had disappeared from future live broadcasts.

They will only be covered in the future by written summaries and photos of the meetings.

The Philadelphia 76ers are also covered this way.

Franchise executive Daryl Morey had publicly supported the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong when he led the Houston Rockets in 2019, sparking an open crisis with China.

Addressing political issues is perilous for companies based in China, which fear losing access to the huge market of its 1.4 billion inhabitants.

Kanter, committed player

Enes Kanter, 29, has been playing in the NBA for many years: he notably wore the colors of the Utah Jazz, the Oklahoma Thunder or the Knicks.

The shoes worn by the Turkish pivot of the Boston Celtics, Enes Kanter, at Madison Square Garden in New York on October 20, 2021 Sarah Stier GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP

In a three-minute video also posted on social networks, the pivot, wearing a T-shirt bearing the effigy of the Dalai Lama, criticizes China's stranglehold on Tibet.

He regularly takes a stand on political issues: in 2020, he published a column in the Boston Globe denouncing the "tens of thousands of innocent people locked up in Turkish prisons, paying the price for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's contempt for human rights ".

A suspected supporter of the Gulenist movement accused by Ankara of orchestrating the failed coup against President Erdogan in July 2016, he has repeatedly stated that he has for years avoided any contact with members of his family in Turkey. fear of exposing them to reprisals from the authorities.

His father, Mehmet Kanter, an academic accused of belonging to this movement founded by the preacher Fethullah Gülen and considered by Ankara as a terrorist, had been acquitted in June 2020 by a Turkish court after denying any link with this movement.

Tibet has alternated over the centuries periods of independence and control by China, which claims to have "peacefully liberated", during a military intervention in 1951, this vast territory located on a rugged plateau.

But human rights activists and Tibetan exiles say China's central government practices religious repression, torture, forced sterilization and cultural erosion through forced re-education.

© 2021 AFP