The Lakers and the Nets will face each other in the NBA China game in Shanghai beginning tonight at 19:30.

Workers take down a gigantic banner promoting an NBA game in Shanghai. AFP

SHANGHAI, China (AFP) — The NBA confirmed an annual exhibition game in China would go ahead on Thursday, rejecting calls to scrap the event over a free speech row that was ignited by an American basketball executive’s pro-democracy tweet.

Superstar LeBron James is set to lead his Los Angeles Lakers against the Brooklyn Nets in Shanghai, the first of two pre-season matches held each year to build on the league’s already huge popularity in China.

An intense Chinese backlash against the world’s top basketball league, triggered by a Houston Rockets executive’s tweet last week in support of Hong Kong’s democracy movement, had thrown the games and the NBA’s larger interests in China into doubt.

In an open letter, a bipartisan set of US lawmakers urged the NBA to suspend all activities in China until Chinese firms and broadcasters end their various boycotts of the league over the controversy.

The letter urged NBA commissioner Adam Silver, who came to Shanghai for the game, to “take a stand.”

“It’s not unreasonable to expect American companies to put our fundamental democratic rights ahead of profit,” the letter said.

China had already yanked away the welcome mat with broadcasters cancelling plans to air the two pre-season games and Chinese NBA sponsors severing ties in protest.

Crews also tore down giant promotional banners showing James and other evidence of the match throughout Shanghai as Chinese netizens called for the games to be scrapped.

However, the NBA confirmed on Thursday afternoon the Shanghai game would go ahead.

“The Lakers and the Nets will face each other in the NBA China game in Shanghai beginning tonight at 19:30,” the NBA said on its verified Chinese social media account.

The posts did not mention the second game of the series scheduled for the southern city of Shenzhen on Saturday.

Silver and the NBA initially responded to Rockets general manager Daryl Morey’s Friday tweet with statements that American politicians branded as kow-towing to China.

Rockets guard James Harden, who is in Japan for another exhibition game, also apologized to China even though he had not publicly expressed any views previously on the matter.

Then, under mounting pressure in the United States, Silver on Tuesday made a strong defense of free speech and American values that provoked new outrage in China’s state-controlled media.

“The long-held values of the NBA are to support freedom of expression, and certainly freedom of expression by members of the NBA community,” Silver said in Japan.

He added that the league would “have to live with” any consequences that may arise from that.

However, although Chinese netizens called for fans to shun the league, a broader protest campaign on China’s government-controlled Internet is yet to take root.

And there has been no suggestion that popular broadcasts in China of the NBA’s upcoming regular season are in jeopardy.

After a video of fans waiting for players at their Shanghai hotel was posted to leading social media platform Weibo, a related hashtag quickly became one of the country’s most viewed.

Responses were overwhelmingly critical of the NBA and its loyal Chinese fans, but many others called for cooler heads.

“James and many players are always good idols but the NBA needs to be responsible for what they said and did,” one post said.