The president of the International Olympic Committee on Thursday sought to downplay concerns about the safety of Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai while saying he planned to go ahead with their long-promised dinner during the Beijing Games.
Peng accused a former senior Chinese Communist Party official of sexual assault last year. IOC President Thomas Bach is one of the few people outside China to have spoken with Peng in the past three months during video conferences with IOC staff.
The calls drew criticism from tennis executives and human rights activists who wanted footage or transcripts that would verify Peng’s well-being. They claimed that the IOC covered the host country of the Olympics.
“We know from her explanations during the videoconferences that she lives here in Beijing,” Bach explained, “that she can move freely, that she spends time with her family and friends.
“We will know more about his physical integrity and his mental state when we can finally meet in person,” the IOC president said, adding that his physical safety was “perhaps the most important human right”.
The most recent call between Peng and IOC staff was this week, Bach added.
No details about the dinner during the Olympics — inside the bubble that separates accredited personnel from the Chinese public — were given.
The two-time Grand Slam doubles champion used a social media post to accuse a former member of China’s ruling standing committee, Zhang Gaoli, of sexual assault several years earlier. The post was quickly deleted and the details of the allegation were scrubbed from the internet in China.
Peng then seemed to disappear from the public sphere, but soon made a brief appearance at a youth tennis event. She also gave an interview to a Chinese language daily in Singapore which raised questions about her authenticity.
On social media, the hashtag #WhereIsPengShuai has become very popular and the player has received support from big tennis stars like Serena Williams, Martina Navratilova and Roger Federer.
The campaign was highlighted at last month’s Australian Open with dozens of supporters wearing the slogan on T-shirts.
The IOC president claimed that if Peng wanted an official Chinese investigation into her allegations “we would also support her in that area, but that has to be her decision.”
“It’s a necessity to respect her,” Bach concluded, “to listen to her and how she sees the situation, how she wants to live her life.”