What happened to Shuai Peng? The 35-year-old Chinese tennis player has not given any sign of life for a week, reports Le Monde. Either right after the publication of his explosive accusation on his Weibo account (the equivalent of Facebook in China). In a long text, Peng Shuai claimed to have had, three years ago, forced sex with former Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli, who was from 2013 to 2018 one of the most powerful politicians in China. . While censorship quickly wiped the message off the Chinese internet, screenshots spread like wildfire. AFP has not been able to determine if the message was written by Peng Shuai and his entourage has declined to comment since.
More worryingly, the main concerned herself has not published any more message, or even simply given a sign of life. Zhang Gaoli, for his part, has not reacted publicly. 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. The embarrassing revelations come days before an important Chinese Communist Party (CCP) conclave in Beijing with the country's top leaders. As of Thursday, searches for both Peng Shuai and Zhang Gaoli were still blocked on Weibo and the Baidu search engine. The player's official account was still active, but searches with her name gave no results on the platform.
China has seen a very sanitized version of the MeToo movement since 2018, with accusations of sexual harassment targeting stars of the song or the small screen, but never so far politicians. Zhang Gaoli, around 75, was until early 2018 a permanent member of the CCP's political bureau and as such one of the seven most powerful men in China. He is considered close to Premier Li Keqiang. In his message, Peng Shuai, who won the Roland Garros tournament in doubles in 2014, said that Mr. Zhang forced him to have sex in his room after a game of tennis, seven years after having already slept with him. “
I was very scared. That afternoon, I initially refused. I kept crying,
”she writes. "
In the grip of fear and trouble (...) I gave in and we had sex
”.
She adds that Mr. Zhang's wife knew about it and "
stood guard outside
."
You were always afraid that I would hide a tape recorder
Shuai peng
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
". 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 who fought on her own to achieve world-class results and yet she had to deal with these kinds of things, which is really distressing.
», Commented Lu Pin for AFP.
Former world number one in doubles, Peng Shuai is currently ranked 189th by the WTA.
