Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai said on Sunday (19) that she has never accused anyone of sexually harassing her, and that a social media post she made last month had been misinterpreted.
Peng raised concern in the sports community and human rights groups when she appeared to accuse former Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli of trying to force her to have sex in the past. After publication, she did not appear in public for nearly three weeks.
“First, I need to reinforce a point that is extremely important, I have never said or written that no one sexually harassed me, I have to make that very clear,” Peng said in a video posted by Lianhe Zaobao, a Singapore media outlet.
This is the first time she has spoken about the subject publicly on video. She gave the statement backstage at a cross-country skiing event in Shanghai that she attended.
She said her posting on Weibo, a kind of Chinese Twitter, which was quickly removed, was a “private matter”.
Peng, 35, said in the video that “people have a lot of misunderstandings” about her posting on Weibo, without giving further details.
She also said that she lived in her Beijing home without supervision. She didn’t mention Zhang.
Reuters news agency has been unable to contact Peng since its publication on Weibo.
The Women’s Tennis Association (WTA), which earlier this month said it would suspend its tournaments in China immediately due to concerns about Peng’s treatment and the well-being of other players, continued to demand a investigation.
“It was good to see Peng Shuai in a public setting again, and we certainly hope she is doing well,” the entity said in a statement. “As we have repeatedly stated, these appearances do not alleviate or resolve the WTA’s relevant concerns about its well-being and its ability to communicate without censorship or coercion.”
“We remain firm in our call for a transparent, fair and thorough investigation, without censorship, into her allegations of sexual harassment, which is the issue that gave rise to our initial concern,” added the WTA.
The Chinese government did not comment directly on Peng’s initial publication, but said after the WTA’s decision to suspend its tournaments in the country that it “opposes the politicization of the sport”.
Zhang did not comment on the matter.
Debates over the scandal, which erupted as Beijing prepares to host the Winter Olympics in February, have been censored in China.
Peng said in the video released on Sunday that she had written a letter last month to WTA boss Steve Simon in which she denied the harassment allegations, and that an English translation of the document released by Chinese state media was correct.
Simon said at the time that he “had difficulty believing” that Peng had actually written the email or believing the statements that had been attributed to her.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) had two video calls with Peng, 35.
At the event in Shanghai on Sunday, Peng appeared alongside athletes from various sports, including former basketball player Yao Ming, and watched the event for about 30 minutes, according to the Lianhe Zaobao report.
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