For many, China's influence in professional sports leagues was clear when Beijing punished the NBA in 2019 after an NBA executive tweeted about demonstrators in Hong Kong. But a couple years earlier, China began moving in on a different beloved enterprise: European soccer.
The Chinese government began a push for sporting dominance in 2014, and soccer is a key area where Xi Jinping, a soccer fan himself, wants to lead. Over the past few years, teams in the Chinese Super League have paid
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