Where is Peng Shuai? This question has stirred the tennis community and international opinion since the 35-year-old Chinese tennis player disappeared. She has not given any more news since her revelations of sexual violence of which she was a victim, Tuesday, November 2. That day, she accused on Weibo lformer Deputy Prime Minister Zhang Gaoli, who was one of China’s most powerful politicians from 2013 to 2018, for forcing him to have sex with him. Franceinfo returns to this case while the player has not given any sign of life for more than a week, announced The world.
Who is Peng Shuai?
The 35-year-old is currently ranked 191st in the WTA. She climbed to 14th place in the WTA rankings in August 2011 and even topped the doubles rankings in February 2014. That year, she won the Roland Garros doubles tournament. In 2018, she received a six-month suspension and a $ 10,000 suspended fine for trying to buy her doubles teammate at the Wimbledon tournament. She had offered money to her partner in exchange for a forfeit in the London doubles tournament that summer, reports The team. His French trainer at the time, Bertrand Perret, had also been sanctioned for three months.
What happened with Zhang Gaoli?
A long story was posted on Weibo (the Chinese equivalent of Twitter) on November 4. He only stayed about twenty minutes online, specifies The world. In it, Peng Shuai recounts a relationship she had with Zhang Gaoli, just prior to her assumption of the post of Deputy Prime Minister and the Standing Committee of the CPC Political Bureau. Now 75 years old, Zhang Gaoli was part of this office from 2013 to 2018. He was, as such, one of the seven most powerful men in the country.
The player mentions in particular a sexual intercourse in his room three years ago, after a game of tennis, seven years after having already slept with the leader “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 adds that Zhang Gaoli’s wife was aware of and “stood guard outside”. Peng Shuai specifies that she then became the mistress of the ex-leader, until an argument last week. She adds that she has no evidence to support her claims. “You were always afraid that I would hide a tape recorder”she wrote, addressing Mr. Zhang. “You will certainly deny it or else, you will go so far as to attack me”.
What are the reactions?
According to Weibo data, a post on the player’s official account on Tuesday has been viewed more than 100,000 times, but the content is not specified. We therefore do not know if this is the testimony of the player. Since crevelations and the disappearance of the player, “#whereispengshuai “(where is Peng Shuai?) appeared on Twitter. Several French personalities and journalists, such as Mary Patrux of BeIn Sports or former athlete Maryse Ewan-Jépée have challenged the WTA and the Chinese embassy.
No but what a story #WhereIsPengShuai https://t.co/SuDfPMhPEX
– Mary Patrux (@MaryPatrux) November 11, 2021
Are we trying a viral attack? WHERE IS #PengShuai #whereispengshuai ? @WTAFinals#ShuaiPeng #PengShuai
Q&A? #QandA ?#WTA #ATP #ATPTour #China Vice-president #ZhangGaoli #Tennis -Community?@wta @atptour @AustralianOpen @sthlm_open @DjokerNole @AndreaGaudenzi @Rafael Nadal https://t.co/NAJAftq6P8– Maryse Éwanjé-Épée (@EwanjeEpee) November 11, 2021
On the day of the revelation, the word “tennis” (wangqiu) had been banned by Weibo. As of Thursday, searches for both the names of Peng Shuai and Zhang Gaoli were still blocked on the social network and on the search engine Baidu. The player’s official account was still active, but searches with her name did not return any results on the platform. Almost normal censorship in China, according to Doriane Lau, researcher at Amnesty International. “The Chinese government has done, is doing and will continue to do, like in other cases related to the #MeToo movement in China.. Even if we can’t verify it, the most likely scenario today is that Chinese officials have restricted his freedom, that they are preventing him from communicating to anyone. “, she advances to Parisian.
From the United States, Chinese feminist activist Lu Pin felt that the tenniswoman’s accusations were all out of a MeToo affair. “Peng Shuai is an extraordinary Chinese woman who fought on her own to achieve world-class results, she commented, and yet she had to deal with this stuff, which is really distressing. ” This case intervenes days away from an important Chinese Communist Party (CCP) conclave in Beijing with the country’s top leaders and that China has known since 2018 a very sanitized version of the MeToo movement. Charges of sexual harassment have targeted stars of the song or the small screen, but never so far politician.