Enforcement of apoliticism among participants is political, it is authoritarian. Every major website on the internet is owned by a corporation; enforced apoliticism is what you have on Chinese internet. If corporations enforced apoliticism there would be no free speech anywhere online and even in meatspace it would be very limited.
With enforced apoliticism, there is always the status quo.
Also, while they might claim to be enforcing apoliticism in a neutral way, their apology to the Chinese state was supremely political:
I was of the impression that the player was of a particular rank, effectively a contracted and paid competitor / employee who was bound by a code of conduct - though I concede I have not researched the incident deeply.
That official statement was pretty poorly worded and it does sound political. Their PR department needs a kick up the backside.
FWIW I support the HK protesters. I just think politics has no place in business, nor sport, nor schools.....the list is long. I'm not talking about apolitical enforcement, I am talking about neutrality.