For the WTA, this is not enough. Reappearing in public for the first time since the start of the affair, Peng Shuai also spoke for 30 minutes with the President of the IOC, Thomas Bach, Sunday, via videoconference. "She explained that she was safe, that she was fine and that she was at her home in Beijing, but that she would like her privacy to be respected," said an IOC statement. During the call, which also brought together the president of the Athletes' Commission Emma Terho, and the Chinese Li Lingwei, member of the Olympic Committee, she assured that she "will continue to be involved in tennis, the sport that she loves so much ”.
The young woman, who had disappeared after her rape accusations against a former Chinese minister, also made some reappearances orchestrated by local authorities during the weekend. Insufficient evidence, according to the WTA, the international women's tennis federation. “It was nice to see her in these videos, but they don't remove the doubt about her well-being or her ability to communicate without being censored or coerced,” a WTA spokesperson told The Guardian on Monday.
The WTA continues: "This video does not change our position, we want a full, fair and transparent investigation, without censorship, into his accusations of sexual assault." Sunday, France asked that the player can "speak" freely to clarify her situation. "I find this matter very worrying", declared the French Minister of Foreign Affairs Jean-Yves Le Drian at the microphone of LCI. “I’m just waiting for one thing, and that’s Ms. Peng Shuai to speak. And if the Chinese authorities want to shed some light, they must allow Ms. Peng Shuai to speak, to say where she is, how she lives, what she does, how she is preparing for the Olympics ” .
This interview with the IOC comes as China is due to host the Winter Olympics from February 4 to 20.
United States President Joe Biden said Thursday "is considering" a diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympics scheduled for February in Beijing, to protest against human rights violations in China.