Chamath Palihapitiya Tries to Clarify China Remarks, Gets Promptly Torched on Twitter
Silicon Valley billionaire Chamath Palihapitiya stepped in it during a recent episode of his podcast, All-In when he flatly stated he doesn’t care about China’s human rights abuses of Uyghur Muslims in the country.
He said that “nobody cares about it, nobody cares about what’s happening to the Uyghurs” and also questioned whether China is a dictatorship. After receiving pushback from cohosts, Palihapitiya said it’s “a hard ugly truth” that registers “below my line” of what is relevant to him.
“Until we actually clean up our own house, the idea that we step outside of our borders with, you know, with us sort of like morally virtue signaling about somebody else’s human rights track record is deplorable,” he said.
Palihapitiya is a minority owner of the NBA’s Golden State Warriors. In response to the predictable backlash, the team issued a brief statement reading, “As a limited investor who has no day-to-day operating functions with the Warriors, Mr. Palihapitiya does not speak on behalf of our franchise, and his views certainly don’t reflect those of our organization.”
On Monday night, Palihapitiya posted a statement on Twitter in an apparent effort to clean up his remarks:
In re-listening to this week’s podcast, I recognize that I come across as lacking empathy. I acknowledge that entirely. As a refugee, my family fled a country with its own set of human rights issues so this is something that is very much a part of my lived experience. To be clear, my belief is that human rights matter, whether in China, the United States, or elsewhere. Full stop.
His remarks were not well received:
https://twitter.com/thejcoop/status/1483235553843757056
https://twitter.com/mattsgorman/status/1483240260121341954
