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Where is Peng Shuai - worries about missing tennis star are growing: is the mysterious email fake?

2021-11-18T15:51:25.437Z


An alleged email from the missing Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai causes frowns. Concerns about the 35-year-old are growing. She had accused a top politician of sexual assault.


An alleged email from the missing Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai causes frowns.

Worries about the 35-year-old are growing.

She had accused a top politician of sexual assault.

Beijing / Munich - The tennis world is worried. The Chinese double specialist Peng Shuai has disappeared. She has not been seen in public since accusing a top politician in her home country of sexual assault. Now a mysterious e-mail has emerged in which the former world number one is said to have written in doubles that she is doing well.

But nothing about this case sounds good.

Anyone who messes with top politicians in China is taking an extreme personal risk.

The man who was accused by Peng Shuai is called Zhang Gaoli and was deputy prime minister until a few years ago.

Time and again, prominent critics of the political caste disappear from the scene - and reappear later with self-criticism, confessions or in court.

So the danger that Peng Shuai will feel the same way despite her international fame is real.

Peng Shuai: Sexual coercion by a top official

At the beginning of the month, Peng Shuai published a lengthy text on the microblog platform Weibo, in which she described her complicated ten-year relationship with the married former Vice Prime Minister Zhang Gaoli. The article speaks of love and affection, common interests and tennis matches.

But the reason for the post is the allegation of sexual assault. One day Zhang, now 75, invited her to play tennis and then went to his home with his wife. Then he took her into his room and wanted sex while his wife was at the door. She refused sexual intercourse, Peng wrote, but still had dinner with Zhang and his wife. After dinner, Zhang harassed her again. In a panic, she finally agreed: "Yes, we had sex then," she writes. Peng Shuai does not spare himself in the contribution. An attack on the retired top functionary Zhang - and from the point of view of the Communist Party on the entire system - he is nonetheless.

The post was deleted within half an hour and Peng disappeared from the scene.

The authenticity of the posting has so far not been verified due to the rapid deletion, nor have the allegations.

But the post, like the tennis star's alleged email, is already circulating on Twitter.

Tennis star Naomi Osaka spoke of a "shock" about the disappearance of the colleague.

Under the hashtag #WhereIsPengShuai (Wo ist Peng Shuai), tennis fans and feminists around the world show their solidarity with the doubles specialist.

China's state broadcaster CGTN publishes alleged emails from Peng Shuai

Then,

on Thursday night

, China's state foreign television station

CGTN

published

an email on Twitter that the tennis star himself wrote and is said to have sent to WTA boss Steve Simon. The Weibo post was "published without my consent" and does not correspond to the truth, it says in Peng's name. The allegation of sexual coercion is also wrong. She has not disappeared either. "I sit at home and take a little rest." "Peng" asks the WTA in its alleged message to discuss future statements with it beforehand.

The WTA has strong doubts about the authenticity of this email. "I find it hard to believe that Peng Shuai actually wrote this email that we received," said WTA boss Steve Simon. He himself tried repeatedly in various ways "in vain" to reach the tennis star. On Twitter, Simon wrote: “The statement on Peng Shuai released today by Chinese state media only worries me more about her safety and whereabouts. Peng Shuai must be allowed to speak freely, without coercion or intimidation from any side. ”In the

New York Times

, Simon threatened the WTA with a withdrawal from China. Several top-class WTA and ATP tournaments for women and men take place there every year.

International experts also expressed disgust on Thursday at the alleged email in the

CGTN

tweet.

“This creepy tweet from CGTN is a good example of the merging of incompetence and authoritarian hubris in China's official news,” wrote Mareike Ohlberg, China expert at the German Marshall Fund.

“If the goal is to convince, it is clearly a failure.

Nobody will read this and think, 'Oh, well, Peng Shuai is ok!

I'm so relieved. ”“ Chinese propaganda rarely hits the right note for international readers, says Ohlberg.

But you won't be able to convince a single Chinese in this way.

The expert is convinced that this is not the goal: it is more a show of power.

China: # MeToo movement is having a hard time

China's censorship immediately put an end to any debate on the Peng Shuai case. Searches for your name or for #MeToo on the Chinese Internet are blocked. Even the word "tennis" was temporarily blocked. In general, the government is cracking down on feminist protests. A group of young women who protested against digging in the subway was tried. And in September a former intern at the state broadcaster CCTV failed in court with her harassment suit against a nationally known presenter. Only Kris Wu was arrested on suspicion of rape: But Wu is a pop star, not an important politician. The government likes to make an example of a misconduct by celebrities.

The situation of women has actually deteriorated recently. In the past, women were more equal in socialist China than in many of the socially conservative neighboring countries. President Xi Jinping is more strongly in favor of traditional roles. In the Global Gender Gap Index 2021 of the World Economic Forum, China has fallen from 63rd place in 2006 to 107th place today. Especially in the area of ​​“health and survival”, the People's Republic ranks 156th.

"Peng Shuai's allegations against Zhang Gaoli, the retired Chinese leader, have rocked society," writes the international group Free Chinese Feminists.

“And yet Peng and its history are being wiped out in China.” The organization documents the Chinese women's movement and has projected images of Peng and the hashtag #WhereIsPengShuai onto the walls of houses in several cities in China over the past few days.

So far there has been no answer.

(

ck)

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2021-11-18

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