China: Peng Shuai revisits rape accusations, WTA reiterates “concern”

Since the beginning of November, each photo or video of Peng Shuai has been scrutinized very closely by the international community. The Chinese player, after being told that she was raped by former Deputy Prime Minister Zhang Gaoli, had disappeared from radar screens raising concern among Western governments and the tennis world. From then on, the athlete’s few sporadic appearances continued to fuel doubts about his living conditions.

This time, it is in a video published this Monday morning that the sportswoman spoke for the first time publicly on the case. She refutes any sexual assault on the part of the high dignitary. “First, I want to stress a very important point: I have never said or written that anyone who sexually assaulted me”, she explains to the Singaporean media Lianhe Zaobao. There have been “a lot of misunderstandings“on a case “private”, adds the champion, dressed in a red t-shirt and a black jacket, during this interview filmed on the cell phone.

The day before, a Chinese journalist for the nationalist daily Global Times had broadcast a sequence of the former world number 1 in doubles chatting with former NBA basketball player Yao Ming.

However, the WTA did not seem convinced after these latest proofs of life. “These (public) appearances do not allay the WTA’s concerns about its well-being and its ability to communicate without censorship or coercion,” the organization said in a statement.

On November 2, in a message posted to the quickly vanished Chinese social network Weibo, Peng Shuai described a heartfelt but upset sentimental relationship with Zhang Gaoli, both before and after he held high office at the top of the regime. Communist. The player mentioned in particular a sexual relationship “strength” with this man. Married and 40 years his senior, Zhang Gaoli was from 2013 to 2018 one of the seven most powerful politicians in China.

As international pressure mounted on China, Chinese journalists tried to reassure by posting photos of the player, as well as an email writing “everything is fine”. But the authenticity of the documents raised serious doubts. In early December, the WTA had canceled all its tournaments in China and called for a transparent investigation into the player’s accusations.