by Helen Raleigh at The Federalist
With less than three months until the Beijing Olympic Games, Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai alleged in a social media post that the former vice premier of China, Zhang Gaoli, had sexually assaulted her. Since a shroud of secrecy usually covers senior Chinese Communist Party leaders’ private lives, Peng’s detailed allegation exposed the darkness of China’s most powerful men.
The CCP initially responded with its typically heavy hand, forcefully “disappearing” Peng physically and from the digital world. Hundreds and thousands of Chinese citizens, including China’s richest man Jack Ma, have been “disappeared” in a similar fashion. Ma didn’t “reappear” until three months later. But the CCP didn’t expect strong pushback from the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) and its most influential stars.
The WTA quickly and very publicly called on Beijing to investigate Peng’s allegations of sexual assault and hasn’t given up on reaching Peng directly. Many prominent tennis stars, including Serena Williams, Naomi Osaka, and WTA founder Billie Jean King spoke about concerns for Peng’s safety. Their star power has kept #whereisPengShuai trending on Twitter for days, signaling to the Chinese authorities that this would not quickly go away.
China sent WTA Chief Executive Officer Steve Simon an email purportedly written by Peng, claiming her “allegation of sexual assault is not true” and “everything is fine.” Simon voiced his skepticism of the email. Instead, he insisted that the Chinese government come clean with Peng’s whereabouts.
Update: This week, CEO Simon announced that WTA is suspending all tournaments in China.
Continue Reading