Denounced all week by personalities in the sports world, the sudden disappearance of Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai, the day after her accusations of sexual assault targeting a top Communist Party leader, became political on Friday. The United Nations (UN) has asked China for proof that the tennis champion is still healthy and safe. A call relayed later in the day by the White House.
“It would be important to have proof of where she is and to know if she is well,” said Liz Throssell, spokesperson for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights at a press briefing. in Geneva, Switzerland, while calling for a “transparent investigation into these allegations of sexual assault.”
The United States also said it was “very concerned” over Peng Shuai’s disappearance and on Friday called on China to provide “verifiable” and “independent” evidence regarding the safety of the athlete and her whereabouts. . ” We know that [le gouvernement chinois] has no tolerance for those who speak out, and a track record when it comes to silencing those who [le font] White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.
The 35-year-old Chinese champion, ex-number 1 in doubles, has not been seen or heard from since she accused former Chinese vice-premier Zhang Gaoli of rape. The assault allegedly occurred three years ago.
Her denunciation was briefly published on November 2 on the sportswoman’s official Weibo account – the Chinese equivalent of Twitter – before being censored by the regime. The Chinese authorities have also removed any reference to these accusations from its Internet network.
Zhang Gaoli, now 75, was between 2013 and 2018 one of the seven most powerful politicians in the political bureau of the Communist Party, and therefore in China.
On Tuesday, Japanese player Noami Osaka expressed public concern over her colleague’s silence after her public speech aimed at denouncing her attacker. “Censorship is never acceptable”, she wrote on Twitter. A few days earlier, the president of the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA), Steve Simon, had told the New York Times failing to speak to Peng Shuai, but having received assurances from Chinese tennis officials that the player was safe and “not under physical threat.”
Serious doubts
However, the mystery of this disappearance was thickened last Wednesday with the publication by the Chinese state channel CGTN of the screenshot of an email attributed to Peng Shuai. The tennis player ensured that she was in good health there and denied the accusations of sexual assault that she had nevertheless brought against Zhang Gaoli a few days earlier. The tone and grammar of the statement mirrored those of forced statements made by many Chinese dissidents in recent years.
The authenticity of the message has been widely questioned, with the Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) coalition even calling for it not to be taken “at face value”. “The Chinese government has a long history of arbitrarily detaining people involved in controversial cases, controlling their ability to express themselves freely and making forced statements,” the human rights group summed up in a statement. .
In recent years, Xi Jinping’s authoritarian regime has demonstrated a rigid and uncompromising posture in the face of the #MeToo movement by applying a systematic crackdown on voices rising in public space to denounce sexual assault. Last September, activist and feminist Huang Xuequin, flagship of the movement in China, stopped showing signs of life on the eve of a flight to England, where she was to go to study. According to the CHRD network, she was detained in Guangzhou for “unknown reasons”.
“Mobilization is important to protect the health and safety of Peng Shuai,” commented on Friday in an interview with the To have to Eugène Lapierre, vice-president of Tennis Canada and director of the former Rogers Cup in Mont-real, in which the Chinese tennis player participated. It is encouraging to see that this mobilization goes beyond the small world of tennis to now reach the UN. “
On Thursday, Tennis Canada supported the WTA in its quest for the truth about Peng Shuai’s living conditions and praised the athlete’s courage in publicly denouncing her attacker. On CNN, Steve Simon also threatened China to withdraw WTA competitions held on its territory, including the very lucrative end-of-season Masters in Shenzhen, in order to force Beijing to shed light on the fate he reserved for the player. “We are completely ready […] to cope with all the complications that arise [de ses annulations] “, He affirmed adding that the rape accusations were for his organization” more important than the business “.
With Agence France-Presse