Two American Moguls Punt on Hong Kong, and Only One Gets Torched

(Bloomberg) -- Compare and contrast these recent comments from American business leaders about Hong Kong:

Exhibit A: “What we learned in the last week -- we’ve learned how complicated this is. The biggest learning from that is that caution is imperative. To take a position that could harm our company in some form would be a big mistake. I just don’t believe it’s something we should engage in in a public manner.”

Exhibit B: “Yes, we do have freedom of speech. But at times, there are ramifications for the negative that can happen when you’re not thinking about others, when you only think about yourself. So many people could have been harmed, not only financially but physically, emotionally, spiritually. So just be careful what we tweet and what we say and what we do. Even though yes, we do have freedom of speech, it can be a lot of negative that comes with it.”

Exhibit A is the comment Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Officer Bob Iger made Tuesday at the Wall Street Journal’s Tech Live conference in Laguna Beach, California. Big corporations have traditionally tried to stay neutral in fraught political situations, so his viewpoint would at one time have been unremarkable. But that has changed in the Trump era, when companies can come under fire on Twitter at any minute. The stance was especially notable coming from Iger, whose company has spoken out in the past about everything from climate change to Georgia’s anti-abortion law.

In this case, Iger didn’t want to go there, and he was honest about why. It’s not good for business to get involved in Hong Kong protesters’ clashes with the Chinese state, no matter what he or Disney might stand for when it comes to individual liberties or sovereignty. The National Basketball Association discovered that when Daryl Morey, general manager of the Houston Rockets, tweeted in support of the protesters and drew an immediate backlash from Beijing that has engulfed the entire league, damaging its prospects in China.

That brings us to Exhibit B, which was of course from LeBron James, star of the Los Angeles Lakers. He’s an athlete, yes. But like Disney, he has to manage his brand in China. And he’s an entrepreneur whose businesses include a production company and a pizza chain in the U.S.

Iger and James said similar things, but James has been excoriated by those who see the Hong Kong protests as a battle for human rights in a totalitarian regime. Editorial cartoons in the U.S. have depicted James kneeling before Chinese President Xi Jinping or belittling protesters.

Iger hasn’t gotten the same treatment yet. Nor has Kevin Johnson, CEO of Starbucks Corp., which has stayed away from commenting on calls from Hong Kong protesters to sever ties with its local licensee. Nor has Mark Parker, CEO of Nike Inc., who gets about 16% of his sales from China and told a CNBC interviewer asking about Nike’s stance on freedom of speech that it was important to be “thoughtful and deliberate in every situation.” Nor has Levi Strauss & Co. CEO Chip Bergh, who relies on China for 3% of revenue and recently answered a question from Bloomberg News on Hong Kong by saying, “I don’t really want to get dragged into a political comment here.”

To be fair, James isn’t running a public company, so he’s not beholden in the same way to investors and a board. On the other hand, he has a broad public constituency as one of the most recognizable celebrities in the world. Like Iger, James has also weighed in publicly on other hot-button issues. He’s sparred with President Donald Trump and decrying police violence against black Americans. The fact that he’s unwilling to do the same on Hong Kong has fueled part of the criticism against him.

As usual when it comes to the NBA, Charles Barkley knew how to put it succinctly: “I thought everybody was really unfair to LeBron,” he told TMZ on Monday. “Everybody does business in China. Every American company does business in China. Why should LeBron not be able to protect his financial interests -- and the NBA and Nike?”

To contact the reporter on this story: Crayton Harrison in New York at tharrison5@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Crayton Harrison at tharrison5@bloomberg.net, Kevin Miller

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