Former Doubles Roland Garros winner Peng Shuai posted a message Tuesday in which she said Zhang Gaoli forced her to have sex three years ago.
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Charges and censorship. Chinese tennis champion Peng Shuai accused, Tuesday, November 2, Zhang Gaoli, a former top Communist leader, for having raped her three years ago, before making her his mistress. A message posted on Weibo, the equivalent of Twitter in China, and very quickly censored on the Chinese web.
In his post, 35-year-old Peng Shuai said that Zhang Gaoli, former Deputy Prime Minister, forced a report on her in her room after a game of tennis. “I was very scared. That afternoon I refused at first. I kept crying.”, she writes. “In the grip of fear and confusion (…) I gave in and we had sex.” She specifies that the wife of Zhang gaoli was aware and “stood guard outside”.
Peng Shuai adds that she later became the ex-leader’s mistress, until an argument last week. She explains that she has no evidence to support her claims. “You were always afraid that I would hide a tape recorder, she writes, addressing Zhang gaoli. You will certainly deny it, or else you will go so far as to attack me. “
This testimony was quickly erased by Chinese censorship, as were the reactions on the subject, which spread like wildfire. As of Thursday, searches for both Peng Shuai and Zhang Gaoli were still blocked on Weibo and the Baidu search engine.
Zhang Gaoli, around 75, was until early 2018 a permanent member of the Chinese Communist Party’s political bureau and as such one of the seven most powerful men in China. He is considered close to Premier Li Keqiang. Former world number one in doubles, Peng Shuai is currently ranked 189th in the WTA rankings.