US-China trade talks; New entity list additions; NBA will not apologize to China

It is now even harder to have much optimism for this week’s US-China trade talks. On Tuesday the US Department of Commerce added 28 Chinese governmental and commercial organizations to the Entity List for engaging in or enabling activities contrary to the foreign policy interests of the United States, and specifically for their work in Xinjiang. Eight of those organizations are some of China’s leading technology firms.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver issued a new statement on the mess with China, one that made clear the NBA is not apologizing or backing down. As I wrote yesterday I believe the NBA has some leverage in its dealings with China, and over the next few weeks and months we may find out if that is true. Google may have thought it had leverage when it declared a “new approach to China” in 2010. Then again, the Chinese Internet industry back then was far closer to being an acceptable replacement than the Chinese Basketball Association is today.

The furious personal and official re…