The Chinese tennis player reiterated that she was not sexually assaulted. Enough to cast doubt on the sincerity of her approach and the pressures weighing on her.
This turnaround does not seem to be a good sign. In his first public address since the case began in November, Peng Shuai denied any sexual assault. “First, I want to stress a very important point: I never said or wrote that someone had sexually assaulted me”, Chinese tennis player told Singaporean newspaper Lianhe Zaobao, a daily in Chinese language but inaccessible in China, on the sidelines of a sporting event in Shanghai this Sunday.
There have been “Many misunderstandings” on a case “Private”, added the champion, wearing a red t-shirt and a black jacket, during an interview filmed on the cell phone. A Chinese journalist for the nationalist daily Global Times previously posted a new video of the player on Twitter. The seven-second streak showed former world number 1 in doubles chatting with former basketball star Yao Ming.
WTA concern
The Women’s Tennis Association (WTA), the body that manages the women’s tennis circuit around the world, on Monday reaffirmed its “worry” concerning the fate of Peng Shuai. “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.
In early December, the WTA had canceled all its tournaments in China and called for a transparent investigation into the player’s accusations. The authority then explained taking this initiative because, according to its president Steve Simon, “Serious doubts” persistent in the player’s freedom of movement.
Peng Shuai assured Lianhe Zaobao newspaper on Sunday that she was free.
At the beginning of November, in a message published on the Chinese social network Weibo, which had quickly disappeared, Peng Shuai had described a sincere but thwarted sentimental relationship with the former Chinese vice-premier Zhang Gaoli. The player mentioned in particular a sexual relationship “strength” with Zhang, married and forty years his senior, before and after he held high office at the top of the Communist regime. Zhang Gaoli was from 2013 to 2018 one of the seven most powerful politicians in China.
The message was promptly erased by Chinese censorship and the former world number 1 in doubles did not appear in public for several weeks, causing concern in the sports world, the UN and many countries including the United States and France.
As international pressure increased on China, Chinese journalists tried to reassure by posting images of Peng Shuai. A copy of an email attributed to the player in which was written “everything is fine” had also been made public. But the authenticity of the documents had left the WTA skeptical. And in early December, the organization had canceled all its tournaments in China, calling for a transparent investigation into the alleged rape charges of Peng Shuai.
From the start, the case has been completely glossed over in the Chinese media. And the censors are redoubling their efforts to erase any allusion to the scandal on social networks.
The majority of Chinese are therefore not aware of the scandal and the various twists and turns of the affair, especially since most foreign media websites are blocked in China. But information still circulates via private messaging and word of mouth.