In early November, Peng Shuai accused a former deputy prime minister, Zhang Gaoli, of rape. The former tennis champion had posted a long story on Weibo (the Chinese equivalent of Twitter), in which she first went back to 2014, the year of her doubles victory at Roland Garros (with her partner, the Taiwanese Hsieh Su-wei, editor’s note). The ex-number 14 in the WTA rankings would have had a consensual relationship with the politician. Four years later, the latter would have contacted him again to suggest that he come and play at his place, at his home. It was then, after the game of tennis was over, that the Communist Party leader allegedly forced her to have sex. “I was very scared. That afternoon, I first refused. I kept crying (…) I gave in and we had sex”. A message that only stayed online for a few minutes.
“Such rape accusations hit for the first time such high ranking leader in the CCP, wrote Simon Leplâtre, correspondent for Le Monde. “Peng Shuai’s lengthy story spanned about twenty minutes on Weibo (the Chinese equivalent of Twitter), enough for thousands of users to have time to take screenshots and then share them. The former professional player’s account hasn’t posted anything new. Comments have been disabled, and the topic is subject to close censorship across social media. “.
Almost a week later, searches for both Peng Shuai and Zhang Gaoli are still blocked on Weibo and the Baidu search engine. The former sportswoman’s official account was still active, but searches with her name gave no results on the platform.
Especially since the outbreak of this affair, the 35-year-old woman has not given any sign of life. “The total silence of the young woman since the case was made public lets fear the worst about her …”, said our colleague.
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