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Mitsubishi Motors Taiwan confirmed that canceled its sponsorship of its Asia Pacific Hearthstone tournament. The lost sponsorship is part of the massive backlash Blizzard faced after pulling a player, Chung “Blitzchung” Ng Wai, from a tournament and banning him from Hearthstone esports for a month. They also revoked his prize money.

Blizzard claimed that Blitzchung’s statement brought into “public disrepute, offends a portion or group of the public or otherwise damages” the company’s reputation. What did Blitzchung do? He said “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our age!” in a post-game interview.

Blizzard is partially owned by the Chinese company Tencent, which accounts for its intense response to Blitzchung. The company’s blatant pro-China bias raised eyebrows, especially on Reddit––which has already been accused of pandering to Chinese interests. One user (in the /r/Conspiracy” subreddit) pointed out that multiple posts about the Blitzchung incident––as well as the South Park incident earlier this week––have been removed from the front page of Reddit.

It’s time the world stop looking the other way with China’s egregious civil rights violations against its own people. It’s time the world stops allowing China to dictate other nations’ foreign policy by throwing around its economic weight. It’s time to stop doing business with China altogether. Good work, Mitsubishi.

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