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Peng Shuai at the China Open in Beijing in 2017 (archive picture): The tournaments of the women's tour in China have been canceled
Photo:
Andy Wong / AP
The Chinese government reacted with incomprehension to the cancellation of the tennis tournaments by the WTA in the wake of the Peng Shuai case.
"We are firmly against the fact that the sport is politicized," said a spokeswoman for the Foreign Ministry.
The WTA had planned eleven events in China this year before they were postponed or canceled due to the corona pandemic.
A resumption of the tournaments has now been put on hold, as Steve Simon, chairman of the players' organization, announced.
The 35-year-old Peng Shuai reported on the Weibo social network at the beginning of November that she had been sexually abused by the former Chinese Deputy Prime Minister Zhang Gaoli.
The entry was deleted as well as numerous Internet entries about Peng, of which there was no trace for more than two weeks.
The WTA assessed later statements as being made under duress.
WTA is determined
"I don't see how I can ask our athletes to compete there when Peng Shuai is not allowed to communicate freely and has apparently been pressured to refute their allegations of sexual assault," Simon said in a statement.
In that case, the International Olympic Committee is also confronted with criticism.
After a video conversation between IOC President Thomas Bach and the tennis player, the Global Athlete sports association criticized that the IOC was "complicit in the malicious propaganda of the Chinese authorities and their lack of interest in basic human rights and justice."
The Winter Olympics are scheduled to take place in the Chinese capital Beijing from February 4th to 20th.
hba / sid