Arsenal star Mesut Ozil removed from PES 2020 after anti-China comments Arsenal\u2019s Mesut \u00d6zil has been removed from Chinese versions of Pro Evolution Soccer 2020, following the Premier League star\u2019s outspoken stance regarding Uighur Muslims reportedly being kept in prison camps in Xinjiang. The 31-year-old, who rarely uses Twitter and other social media during the Premier League season, posted an image of the former East Turkestan republic flag with a message calling Uighurs in China \u201cwarriors who resist persecution.\u201d \u201c[In China] Qurans are burned, mosques were closed down, Islamic theological schools, madrasas were banned, religious scholars were killed one by one. Despite all this, Muslims stay quiet,\u201d he said on December 13, as translated by The Guardian. Following the comment, several Chinese fan sites announced they will stop posting football news relating to \u00d6zil, according to the Chinese press, while a Chinese simulation game stopped the production of \u00d6zil player cards after the news. Now, the star has also been removed from Pro Evolution Soccer\u2019s Chinese releases by eastern publisher NetEase, who said \u00d6zil\u2019s comments \u201churt the feelings of Chinese fans and violated the sport\u2019s spirit of love and peace.\u201d \u201cThe German player \u00d6zil posted an extreme statement about China on social media\u2026 we do not understand, accept, or forgive this,\u201d NetEase said. China\u2019s foreign ministry also weighed in on \u00d6zil\u2019s comments, suggesting the German-Turkish player had been \u201cdeceived by fake news,\u201d while many comments on Weibo\u2014China\u2019s main social media platform\u2014call for the 31-year-old to be sacked. \u201cDo you know how Arsenal fans in China have spent the last two days?\u201d one self-declared former Arsenal supporter posted on the forum. \u201cThey are struggling to understand how the club and idol they once loved has turned out to be a rumourmonger. Of course, if you intend to attack China, you are as insignificant in our hearts as dirty ants.\u201d As well as \u00d6zil\u2019s removal from the football simulator, Chinese state television channels also pulled screenings of Arsenal\u2019s most recent Premier League match against England\u2019s defending champions Manchester City. The removal of the league\u2019s matchday 17 clash comes after most references to \u00d6zil at all were removed from the internet in China, basically erasing the German star from existence for those accessing online information in the country. This isn\u2019t the first time Chinese investors have strong-armed game developers after public comments speaking out against the country\u2019s current regime either. Earlier this year, Hearthstone pro Chung \u2018Blitzchung\u2019 Ng Wai was banned from the game\u2019s professional circuit and docked his season\u2019s winnings after he called for the liberation of Hong Kong during the GrandMasters tournament. The backlash against Hearthstone publishers Blizzard from the online community was immediate and swift. Other pro players across titles like Overwatch threatened to boycott the company, while fans started the #BlizzardBoycott hashtag. The ban, and Blizzard\u2019s much-criticized non-response to the whole situation, even drew the eye of several US Representatives and members of Congress, who penned a bipartisan letter to Activision Blizzard condemning their actions. While Blizzard eventually reinstated Blitzchung\u2019s prize money, and reduced his hefty ban from the circuit to just six months, it doesn\u2019t look like there are any plans for \u00d6zil to return to the 2020 release of PES, especially considering it\u2019s China only. PES fans should keep their eyes on the news, however. If NetEase wants to put pressure on Konami to bump \u00d6zil from the game, the 31-year-old midfielder may find himself disappearing from the world of PES entirely.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Arsenal star Mesut Ozil removed from PES 2020 after anti-China comments Arsenal\u2019s Mesut \u00d6zil has been removed from Chinese versions of Pro Evolution Soccer 2020, following the Premier League star\u2019s outspoken stance regarding Uighur Muslims reportedly being kept in prison camps in Xinjiang. The 31-year-old, who rarely uses Twitter and other social media during the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78711\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}