Dwight Howard, who last played for the L.A. Lakers in 2022 and has since joined the Taoyuan Leopards of Taiwan’s T1 League, has walked back his description of Taiwan as a “country” in the face of Chinese outrage.
Howard recently posted a video in which he raves about his experience in Taiwan and, at one point, calls the Island a “country.”
“Since I’ve come to Taiwan, I’ve gained a whole new appreciation of this country,” he says in the video. “This place makes me feel so much love, and I experience so much hospitality with a friendly and greatly living environment with such a great diverse culture.”
But after the video was released, Chinese zealots on China’s social media app Weibo began slamming Howard for calling Taiwan a country. China has never recognized Taiwan as a sovereign country and has always considered it a Chinese territory, despite the Taiwanese government’s claims that it has become an independent nation.
In the wake of the criticism from China, one of the most oppressive and murderous countries in the world, Howard is absurdly backing down.
He is now claiming that there was a “communications” snafu and that he was not exactly calling Taiwan a “country.”
“Where I’m from, if I say I wanna go to the country, it doesn’t not mean that place is a country. It’s just how we talk,” the former NBA player told reporters after the criticism began, according to CNN.
“If I offended anyone in China, I apologize. It was not my intention to harm anyone with what I said in the commercial,” he said, adding, “I am not a politician. I don’t want to get involved in any politics… I have the utmost respect for Chinese people and utmost respect for Taiwanese people, so it was never my intent to disrespect nobody.”
Why Howard should care if anyone in genocidal China is offended or not is anybody’s guess — especially since the new league he just joined — which was only started in 2021 — doesn’t even play in China.
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