Chinese sports writer mocks Sonny Bill Williams for slamming the treatment of Uyghur Muslims

Chinese sports writer calls Sonny Bill Williams a ‘brainwashed sinner’ after the dual code star slammed Beiijing’s treatment of Uyghur Muslims

  • Chinese website QQ commentator angered at Sonny Bill Williams’s China tweet
  • The All Blacks star questioned why trade trumped treatment of Muslim Uyghurs
  • Yang Hua, a Chinese sport writer, suggested he was ‘brainwashed’ by the West  

A Chinese sports writer claims rugby star Sonny Bill Williams has been brainwashed into criticising the Communist superpower’s treatment of Muslims.

Williams, a 34-year-old Muslim convert, has angered Yang Hua, an opinion writer with the QQ sports website – two days after he criticised nations that put trade ahead of Uyghurs in China’s Xinjiang province.

‘It’s a sad time when we choose economic benefits over humanity,’ Williams tweeted to his 891,000 followers on Monday.

 

A Chinese sports writer has suggested rugby star Sonny Bill Williams has been brainwashed into criticising the Communist superpower’s treatment of Muslims (he is pictured with his wife Alana Raffie and their daughters Imaan and Aisha)

The QQ website has suggested Williams had ‘made a statement that seriously hurt the feelings of the Chinese people’ adding it was ‘vicious and shameless’.

‘Regrettably, although Williams deserves respect on the rugby field and the ring, he is brainwashed by the Western media and has no ability to judge himself,’ Mr Yang’s column said.

‘He makes casual conclusions on things he does not understand.’

The headline of Mr Yang’s comment piece also mocked the wealth of Williams, who has just signed a lucrative $10 million contract to play rugby league with the Toronto Wolfpack in the English Super League.

‘The world’s most expensive rugby superstar has bad comments,’ it said.

Mr Yang also suggested Williams had criticised China because rugby union did not have a big following there.

Williams, a 34-year-old Muslim convert, has angered Yang Hua, an opinion writer with the QQ sports website - two days after he criticised nations that put trade ahead of Uyghurs in China's Xinjiang province

Williams, a 34-year-old Muslim convert, has angered Yang Hua, an opinion writer with the QQ sports website – two days after he criticised nations that put trade ahead of Uyghurs in China’s Xinjiang province

The QQ website has suggested Williams had 'made a statement that seriously hurt the feelings of the Chinese people' (pictured are Muslim Uyghurs in an internment camp)

The QQ website has suggested Williams had ‘made a statement that seriously hurt the feelings of the Chinese people’ (pictured are Muslim Uyghurs in an internment camp)

‘He is not afraid to offend the Chinese because he did not earn Chinese money,’ he said.

The critique also quoted Zhao Jiaxing, another sporting commentator, who suggested Williams would curtail the global spread of rugby.

‘He will become a sinner who hinders the spread of rugby,’ he said.  

China continues to be the biggest trading partner of New Zealand and Australia – two nations Williams has called home during his career as a rugby league and All Blacks union star.

Nonetheless, both nations across the Tasman Sea have quietly raised concerns, through diplomatic channels, about how China’s Uyghur Muslims are put into internment camps and forced to eat pork and drink alcohol.

China continues to be the biggest trading partner of New Zealand and Australia - two nations Williams has called home during his career as a rugby league and All Blacks union star (pictured is New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing)

China continues to be the biggest trading partner of New Zealand and Australia – two nations Williams has called home during his career as a rugby league and All Blacks union star (pictured is New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing)

His Monday tweet echoed a call from fellow Muslim, Arsenal playmaker Mesut Ozil, for other countries to speak out against China’s reported actions of detaining Uyghur people in ‘re-education camps’.

In 2015, Williams sparked another controversy when he tweeted images of dead children killed in conflict, following a visit to a Syrian refugee camp in Lebanon as a UNICEF ambassador. 

Williams, who converted to Islam a decade ago, in March made a video where he cried upon hearing the news Muslims had been killed at two mosques in Christchurch. 

His new home country Canada’s second biggest trading partner is China.

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk