Sen. Marco Rubio on Monday rhetorically questioned if the commissioner of the Major League Baseball (MLB) would give up his Augusta National Golf Club membership in addition to pulling the All-Star game from Atlanta in protest against the recently enacted election reforms in the Peach State.
“Taking the All-Star game out of Georgia is an easy way to signal virtues without significant financial fallout. But speaking out against the Chinese Communist Party would involve a significant loss of revenue and being closed out of a lucrative market.” Rubio wrote.
“I am under no illusion that Major League Baseball will sacrifice business revenue on behalf of its alleged corporate values. Similarly, I am under no illusion you intend to resign as a member from Augusta National Golf Club. To do so would require a personal sacrifice, as opposed to the woke corporate virtue signaling of moving the All Star Game from Atlanta.”
MLB announced the relocation of the All-Star game days after Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed into law a set of election reforms. Kemp said the new law would make it harder to cheat and easier to vote. Democrats have attacked the bill that rolls back Democrat-backed election reforms that were introduced during the pandemic, alleging that it amounts to “voter suppression.”
Rubio had already lambasted the MLB for extending a deal with the Chinese telecommunications behemoth Tencent the day before announcing its Georgia boycott.
Chinese state media reported on April 1 that the MLB will continue to be aired on the streaming platform operated by Tencent, which has significant ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Tencent is one of the Chinese companies that had temporarily dropped NBA games as a form of censorship after former Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey spoke out in support of the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong.
On April 2, the day after the announcement of the Chinese deal, the MLB moved its annual All-Star game out of Atlanta, Georgia. Manfred said in a statement at the time that the boycott would “demonstrate our values as a sport.”
The league did not respond to an emailed request to confirm the details of the Chinese deal and a question on how continuing business with communist China demonstrates its values considering the recent U.S. recognition of a genocide being carried out by the CCP against Uyghurs and other minority groups.
The CCP is responsible for an estimated 100 million unnatural deaths since taking power in China in 1949. Since 1999, the CCP has carried on with its persecution of Falun Gong, a spiritual practice followed by an estimated 100 million people—1 in 12 people in China—that promotes the tenets of truth, compassion, and tolerance.
“In the end, as a citizen of a free nation you, and Major League Baseball, have the right to speak out against laws in the U.S. you disagree with, even if it is on the basis of false information. What would be truly bold, however, is if you would speak out on behalf of the voiceless who face arbitrary imprisonment, forced sterilization, coerced abortions, rape, and other horrific acts at the hands of one of your business partners,” Rubio wrote.
