discord at the Australian Open over the t-shirt to support Peng Shuai

​flip-flop at the Australian Open. Faced with pressure, the tournament organizers finally accept the wearing of the “Where is Peng Shuai?” t-shirt. Until that night, these clothes were confiscated by security. The reason given: no politics at the Australian Open. The player has disappeared from the radar since she accused a former senior official of the communist regime of rape. It was last November. She has since only reappeared on video, but there is no confirmation that she is free.

Tennis stars are mobilizing to wear t-shirts, like the American champion Martina Navratilova and the French Nicolas Mahut. “But what’s going on? What a lack of courage! What if you didn’t have Chinese sponsors?”, he wondered. The player notably referred to a Chinese brand of alcohol, one of the tournament’s biggest funders. For its part, China declares itself against any politicization of sport.