Warriors part-owner backtracks after saying he doesn’t care about Uyghur abuse

Chamath Palihapitiya: ‘To be clear, my belief is that human rights matter, whether in China, the United States, or elsewhere’. Photograph: Brendan McDermid/Reuters

A part-owner of the Golden State Warriors has backtracked after saying that “nobody cares” about the human rights abuses suffered by the Uyghur people at the hands of Chinese authorities.

Chamath Palihapitiya, a billionaire venture capitalist, posted a clarification of his comments to Twitter on Wednesday. “I recognize that I came across as lacking empathy. As a refugee, my family fled from a country [Sri Lanka] with its own set of human rights issues so this is something that is very much part of my lived experience. To be clear, my belief is that human rights matter, whether in China, the United States, or elsewhere.”