Yes, most of the time mixing politics with gaming can be quite annoying. The reason for that is that most of us live in places where the politics in question aren’t urgent and they don’t determine whether people live or die. This is not the case in Hong Kong.
The protesters in Hong Kong are being treated brutally. They are not, however, being massacred as they were in Tiananmen square, or during one of the many purges, or during the great leap forward, or during the cultural revolution.
The reasons for this are Hong Kong’s visibility, the censure such treatment receives from other countries, and the fact that this censure conflicts with China’s interests. The fact that people around the world can see what’s happening in Hong Kong, the fact that they disapprove, and the fact that they can get their governments to express that disapproval is what makes the difference between rubber bullets and live bullets being shot into a crowd.
China has an interest in silencing discussion and protest. They want to be able to carry out their policies without endangering their interests. Blizzard has a monetary interest in not angering China. But at some point the monetary interests of companies are not that important. I’m sure the Chinese themselves would have agreed with this in the late 1930’s when a large part of the country was under an utterly barbaric Japanese occupation, and the Japanese navy was powered by imports of oil and steel from Western countries.
Now, I’m not claiming Blizzard should have ignored violations of the TOC. However, they certainly should not have come down as hard as they did. It reeks of appeasement and censorship. They could and should have given out a much more reasonable punishment.
The backlash they are receiving is valid. It’s also useful. It gets press for the issue, it got senators involved, and it gives Blizzard (and other countries) a wonderful opportunity to learn and care about the opinions of their player base.