Concerns are growing for Peng Shuai, one of China’s most recognisable sport stars. Earlier this month, the 35-year-old posted sexual assault allegations against a former government official, and hasn’t been seen since.
Who is Peng Shuai?
Peng is a professional tennis player from Hunan, China, who has played in multiple Olympics. In 2014, she became the first Chinese tennis player to be ranked world No.1 doubles by the Women’s Tennis Association. She also reached No 14 in the singles rankings in 2011, and won her first women’s doubles championship at Wimbledon in 2013, then again at the 2014 French Open where she reached the semifinals.
What are the allegations?
In a statement shared to social media on 2nd November, Peng claimed that Chinese former vice-premier, Zhang Gaoli, now 75, sexually assaulted her over a period of at least 10 years.
She claims that they had an on-off extramarital ‘relationship’ but that Zhang stopped contacting her after he became a more senior member of the Communist party, but around three years ago after he had retired, Zhang invited her to play tennis with him and his wife. There, Peng claims, Zhang coerced her into sex.
Though Peng reportedly said she couldn’t produce any evidence to support her accusations, she knew she had to say something: “Like an egg hitting a rock, or a moth to the flame, courting self-destruction, I’ll tell the truth about you,” she wrote, as per The Guardian.
“That afternoon I did not agree at first and was crying all the time,” Peng wrote, as per CNN. “Why did you have to come back to me, took me to your home to force me to have sex with you?
“I couldn’t describe how disgusted I was, and how many times I asked myself am I still a human? I feel like a walking corpse. Every day I was acting, which person is the real me?”
What was the response?
The post with screenshots of the accusations was deleted from Weibo, China’s Twitter-like social media platform, within 30 minutes of publication. Censors deleted any mention of her accusation online and her account was blocked from searchers. The post went viral nonetheless, and censors blocked keywords like ‘tennis’ and removed numerous references to Peng from China’s internet, as per The Guardian.
Peng has not been seen in public since the accusations and her whereabouts hasn’t been verified.
At the time of writing, Chinese authorities have yet to publicly speak on Peng’s accusations against Zhang and Zhang hasn’t said anything either. Zhao Lijian, a spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said the issue “wasn’t a diplomatic matter” and knows nothing more.
Then on 17th November, Chinese state media released an email claiming to be from Peng to head of the WTA Steve Simon, saying that she’s fine.
But on November 17, Chinese state media released an email, purportedly sent to WTA’s Simon from Peng, walking back her allegations and claiming she is fine and that the allegations are ‘not true’, as per BBC. Simon said the message “only raises” his concerns about Peng’s wellbeing further.
“I have a hard time believing that Peng Shuai actually wrote the email we received or believes what is being attributed to her,” he said in a statement.
“Whether she was coerced into writing it, someone wrote it for her, we don’t know,” he said. “But at this point I don’t think there’s any validity in it and we won’t be comfortable until we have a chance to speak with her,” he added.
Rights group Amnesty also said the words “should not be taken at face value” but the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said it favoured “quiet diplomacy” and would not comment.
Tennis stars including Naomi Osaka and Serena Williams have expressed concerns for Peng’s safety, with thousands using the hashtag #whereisPengShuai to spread the message.
We’ll update when we know more.