第243页 Home and Away

When I spoke with Li Yuanwei, of the basketball association, he emphasized that Coca-Cola was an important source of funding, and he hoped that the company and Yao would reach an agreement out of court. Li told me that Americans have difficulty understanding the duties of an athlete in China, where the state provides support from childhood. I asked if the same logic could be applied to a public-school student who attends Peking University, starts a business, and becomes a millionaire. “It’s not the same,” Li said. “Being an athlete is a kind of mission. They have an enormous impact on the ideas of the common people and children. That’s their responsibility."
Before I travelled to Harbin, in northeastern China, to attend the Asian Championship, I talked with Yang Lixin, a law professor at People’s University in Beijing. Yang was preparing a seminar on the Coca-Cola case. “Contact with American society probably gave Yao some new ideas,” Yang told me. “It’s like Deng Xiaoping said—some people will get wealthy first. Development isn’t equal, and in a sense rights also aren’t equal. Of course, they are equal under law, but one person might demand his rights while another does not. It’s a choice. In this sense, Yao Ming is a pioneer.”