Hu Xijin, editor-in-chief of Global Times, a newspaper aligned with the Chinese Communist Party, posted on Twitter this Saturday (20) two videos that would prove that tennis player Peng Shuai, 35, is alive. Her whereabouts have been unknown since the beginning of the month, when she denounced, on a Chinese social network, that she was the victim of sexual harassment allegedly committed by Zhang Gaoli, former vice premier of China.
In one of the records released by Hu, Peng appears to have dinner “with the technician and friends in a restaurant”, as the editor wrote. “The video data clearly shows that the records were taken this Saturday, Beijing time.” Before, Hu had already republished, also on Twitter, photos in which the athlete appears playing with a cat in a room full of stuffed animals.
According to journalist Shen Shiwei, who originally posted the images, the records were published on the tennis player’s profile on the WeChat app with the message “Happy weekend”. Both Hu and Shen’s accounts are identified by Twitter as “media affiliated with the Chinese government”, which has raised doubts from users of the social network as to the way in which the videos and photos were produced.
Reuters was unable to independently verify the authenticity of the images.
In publishing the images of Peng, the editor said that she was “freely in her house for the last few days and did not want to be disturbed”. “She will appear in public and participate in activities soon.” The Global Times, led by Hu, is published by People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party.
Since the harassment case was reported, neither Zhang nor any other member of the Chinese government has commented on the tennis player’s allegations. Her post was quickly deleted from the social network, as were the threads of discussion on the ultra-controlled and censored Chinese internet.
According to a screenshot of Peng’s verified Weibo account, a kind of Chinese Twitter account, the tennis player claimed that Zhang, who was a member of the Politburo Standing Committee, which represents the Communist Party’s top leadership, coerced her into having sex and then later , they had an intermittent consensual relationship.
In the same message, the sportswoman said she has no evidence to support her allegations. Even so, the complaint generated a strong reaction. On Thursday (18), the president of the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) said he is considering giving up sporting events in China if the charges are not investigated.
“We are definitely willing to stop our business and deal with all the complications that come with it,” Steve Simon said in an interview with CNN USA. “Because this is certainly bigger than business. Women need to be respected, not blamed.”
China has been one of the main expansion points for international tennis tournaments. In 2019, the country hosted nine WTA competitions with millionaire awards and, after the cancellation of championships scheduled for 2020 due to Covid, the association planned to resume Chinese events in 2022.
The United Nations (UN) also commented on the case, stressing the importance of obtaining evidence of Peng’s whereabouts and safety. “We strongly urge that an investigation be carried out with full transparency into their allegations of sexual assault,” a spokeswoman for the High Commission for Human Rights told a news conference in Switzerland.
Before, big sports stars such as Serena Williams, Naomi Osaka and Novak Djokovic had already spoken about the case. On social networks, the hashtag #whereispengshuai (where Peng Shuai is) groups the content about the case and follows with tens of millions of mentions.
Also on Friday, a senior member of the IOC (International Olympic Committee) told Reuters that the organization must be pressured to take tough measures against Beijing. “If it’s not resolved sensitively very soon, it could get out of hand,” said Dick Pound, the agency’s former vice president.
He said he did not believe the episode would threaten the holding of the Winter Olympics, scheduled to take place in February in Beijing, but said that “you never know”.
Zhang, 75, accused by Peng, was China’s vice premier between 2013 and 2018. He was also party secretary for Shandong Province and was a member of the Politburo Standing Committee between 2012 and 2017. The tennis player, in turn, was No. 1 in the world doubles rankings in 2014, becoming the first Chinese to reach the top of the list, after winning the tournaments at Wimbledon in 2013 and Roland Garros in 2014.
For years, cases of sexual harassment and abuse were rarely publicly discussed in China. The scenario changed in 2018, when the #MeToo movement arrived in the country, after a university student accused a teacher of harassment. The episode caught the attention of NGOs, the press and other sectors.
As in the case of Peng, social networks are usually the main channel for exposing complaints, as the local press in general does not cover the topic. Even so, discussions in online spaces are not far from the eyes of the government, which watches the internet in the country. For this, a series of laws and digital blocking tools were created, as part of a policy that has been improved since the 1990s. Companies in the country’s digital market are obliged to monitor and restrict user activity, under penalty of losing the right to operate. Anyone who violates the rules can be fined and imprisoned.
Controlling the internet is part of the Chinese Communist Party’s censorship policy, which also vetoes the circulation of news and information that the government dislikes or that, in the regime’s view, could cause problems for society.
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