The embarrassing spectacle of the NBA’s millionaire players and billionaire owners doing the bidding of China’s communist rulers, and even attacking the United States in the process, has forced Americans to ask questions about our national culture.

Many have asked if the case for free trade was a fable, and that instead of us exporting American liberties, we are importing Chinese oppression. Others have pointed to the hypocrisy of “woke” NBA celebrities, such as Steve Kerr and Gregg Popovich, “brave” when defending elite morality in America but abject cowards when faced with actual cases of oppression that potentially conflict with their financial interests or contractual obligations.

But there’s a subtler point that it's easy to miss: The censorious arguments from Beijing’s defenders sound like they could come from the mouths of campus leftists or appear on the pages of America's liberals magazines.

Take the letter from Joe Tsai, the billionaire who owns most of the New Jersey Nets. The first part of the letter conflates, again and again, the demands of the Chinese state to silence opposition with the demands of "fans."

“Chinese fans have reacted extremely negatively to a tweet put out by Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey," Tsai begins. "The Rockets … are now effectively shut out of the Chinese market as fans abandon their love for the team," he adds later. "Fans in China are calling for an explanation," Tsai goes on.

Tsai then adopts a stance that is very familiar to those who have tried to host a conservative speaker or even a debate on a liberal campus: Free speech isn’t for sensitive topics that affect “certain cultures.”

“[T]he NBA has been very progressive in allowing players and other constituents a platform to speak out on issues,” Tsai writes. “The problem is, there are certain topics that are third-rail issues in certain countries, societies and communities.”

Supporting Hong Kong independence is out of bounds for “all citizens in China,” Tsai claims. “This issue is non-negotiable.”

He writes as if increasing Hong Kongers’ rights — or, by implication, granting independence to Taiwan — would demolish China’s “territorial integrity.”

This echoes the specious left-wing tactic of declaring opinions as intolerable if they “deny or question my right to exist.” This argument is constantly rolled out against arguments that certainly do not deny or question anyone’s right to exist.

Tsai also justifies this censorious mindset by telling the timeworn tale that China's government uses to justify its current belligerence. It all goes back to colonial oppression and China's "century of humiliation," with the blame mostly falling on the British. The Chinese communists use this as their sob story when trying to win sympathy for their own illiberal behavior.

Thankfully, it doesn’t seem to be working. The American Left is no warmer to China's strong-arm efforts than is the American Right. American liberals who cheered the political activism of NBA celebrities are now audibly lamenting their silence, and good for them.

There's plenty of reason to worry that parts of the American Left are abandoning the principles of pluralism, tolerance, and free speech. Here's hoping that some censorious intolerance from China is stirring up these old principles and putting the liber- back into American liberals.