Photo: Zhizhao Wu/Getty
With Chinese tennis player Peng Shuaistill reportedly missingafter she accused a Chinese government official of sexually assaulting her earlier this month, a reporter who has been covering the athlete’s case says “pressure” is growing on China to “answer for her whereabouts.”
Peng, 35, hasnot been seen publiclysince she accused Zhang Gaoli, a former member of the Communist party’s Standing Committee, of forcing her to have sex years ago. Peng posted the accusation on Weibo Nov. 2, but the post has since been deleted.
Pointing to recent calls from tennis pros including Naomi Osaka,Serena Williams, Petra Kvitová, Nadia Petrova, and Andy Murray, Davidson said “some of the biggest names in tennis” are using the hashtag #WhereIsPengShuai to put “pressure on China to answer for her whereabouts.”
“The head of the WTA has said, unequivocally, that they are very concerned about what has happened here. They do not believe that the email that Chinese state media put out is true,” Davidson told Rubenstein. “And they are threatening to pull their partnership with China, which is not a small thing.”
She continued, “The way that this email reads, and I don’t say this lightly, this sounds hyperbolic — but it reads a little bit like a hostage note,” before clarifying, “I’m not saying that necessarily Peng is being held hostage. But the WTA itself has said that they doubt the veracity of, and the origins of this email.”
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Davidson also detailed how China has been increasingly invested in tennis in the past decade, making the case of Peng’s disappearance — and its potential consequences — even more significant.
“A lot of future tournaments, juniors tournaments, and now the WTA finals, are held in China. They bid for those tournaments,” she said. “So for the WTA to threaten to pull out of, what was a 10-year deal signed in 2019, is a huge deal. You’re talking millions and millions of dollars.”
“There is significant pressure on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to do or say anything here,” Davidson said, adding, “whether or not they will, I think you can be cynical, as I tend to be, and say there’s way too much money at stake here. After the tenuous Olympics that we saw in Tokyo, the IOC is going to take what it can get.”
“Having a major partner like Beijing, like China, is not something that they would want a wrinkle,” she continued. “But at the same time, you have seen pressure like this exist on the IOC before. And so I think that you will start to see a lot more national and international pressure, either from athletes, or from governing bodies. … I think definitely you will continue to see that kind of pressure heightened.”
source: people.com
