Warriors’ Chamath Palihapitiya: Uyghur comments lack empathy

Chamath Palihapitiya, a venture capitalist who owns 2% of the Golden State Warriors, is backtracking on a comment he made over the weekend that “no one” cares about the Uighur Muslim genocide in China and so is he.

“When I listened to this week’s podcast again, I realized that I lacked empathy,” Palihapitiya tweeted. “I fully admit that.

“As a refugee, my family has fled a country that has its own human rights issues so this is a lot in my life experience. To be clear, I believe that human rights are an important issue, whether in China, the United States, or elsewhere. Dots.”

The Uighurs are a Muslim minority in China with slaves endured labor, rape and forced sterilization. President Joe Biden signed an invoice in December banned the import of goods from China’s Xinjiang region unless it could be demonstrated that they were not produced with forced labor.

Above Podcast “All in”, of which Palihapitiya is a co-host, he responded to a comment that President Biden’s defense of the Uyghurs was admirable but did not appear in the polls.

“Honestly, no one cares what is happening to the Uyghurs,” Palihapitiya said. “You bring it up because you really care, and I think it’s great that you care. The rest of us don’t care.

“I am telling you a very hard and evil truth. Of all the things that interest me, it’s under my line. ”

He said he was more concerned with various inconveniences in the country.

“I’m interested in [empty shelves at grocery stores]. I am interested in the fact that our economy could prosper if China invades Taiwan. I care about that,” said Palihapitiya. “I care about climate change. I care about America’s crippled and crippled healthcare infrastructure.

“But if you ask me if I am interested in a segment of a class of people in another country? It wasn’t until we could take care of ourselves that I prioritized them over us. I think a lot of people believe that and I’m sorry if that’s the hard truth. But every time I say I care about Uyghurs, I’m really just lying if I don’t really care.”

He believes that caring about global human rights is a “luxury”.

“It’s a luxury belief,” Palihapitiya replied. “The reason that I think we haven’t done enough domestically to really express that point of view in real tangible ways. So until we actually clean our house, the idea that we step outside our borders, with us morally – signals about the human rights record of others, is reprehensible”.

The Warriors shunned Palihapitiya’s remarks.

“As a limited investor who does not function daily with the Warriors, Mr Palihapitiya does not speak on behalf of our franchise and his views certainly do not reflect those of our organization. ,” the group said in a statement.