(This update courtesy of the Media Research Center.)
It's “only fair” for the Chinese government to take half
of what a Chinese basketball player will earn in the NBA. Since
the Chinese government “had taken care of him from childhood,” CNN
reporter Jaime Florcruz contended from Beijing, “it's only fair
that he gives back to the state.”
Like the guy had any choice in the matter.
MRC analyst Ken Shepherd caught Florcruz's rationale which
came after a taped piece he filed for the June 26 NewsNight about
basketball star Yao Ming, who was drafted first in the NBA
playoffs by the Houston Rockets. Florcruz noted that he will be
required to give half of his NBA earnings to the Chinese
government.
Following the taped piece, NewsNight fill-in anchor Anderson
Cooper asked Florcruz, who appeared live from Beijing: “I can't
believe he's got to give half of his earnings basically to the
Chinese government?”
Florcruz replied: “Yes, he is. Well, that's scandalous in most
countries. But for most Chinese, they can accept the fact that the
state, the government, had taken care of him from childhood. And
it's about — it's only fair that he gives back to the state, to
the country. So it's not a totally scandalous thing here.”
Of course, pre-Reagan the U.S. confiscated up to 91 percent of
a high-income person's earnings.