Tennis player Peng Shuai reappears and holds a video call with the IOC

Public appearance and subsequent video call with IOC President Thomas Bach: Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai reappeared this Sunday, although this does not completely resolve doubts about his personal situation when international pressure increases to try to help her.

The IOC said in a statement that the tennis player “explained that she was safe and sound, but that she would like her private life to be respected,” said the institution about a video call that lasted 30 minutes in which the president of the commission of athletes, Emma Terho, and Chinese Li Lingwei, who also belongs to the IOC. This is the first direct exchange between the player and a sports official from outside China since the case was ‘born’.

According to the IOC, the player indicated that “she prefers to spend time with her friends and family today.” “I am relieved to see that Peng Shuai is doing well, it was our greatest concern,” Emma Terho added in the statement.

Before Peng appeared in a children’s tournament, according to a video and photos disclosed in the official profile of the China Open on the Weibo social network. It would be his first official appearance since his report of sexual abuse was censored on the Chinese internet.

Peng Shuai, 35, a former world number one in doubles, has not come out publicly since accused Zhang Gaoli in early November, a powerful former leader of the Chinese Communist Party 40 years her senior, for having forced her to have sex.

Following international complaints from governments and tennis stars, Chinese official media have released a flurry of images to indicate that Peng is in good condition.

Hat and mask

A video of Sunday’s event, tweeted by Global Times editor Hu Xijin, shows Peng standing in a stadium among a group of guests whose names were announced over loudspeaker. Another journalist from the same newspaper tweeted another video featuring Peng signing autographs for kids in what appears to be the same stadium, before posing with them for some photos. The videos are in addition to other images released by Hu on Saturday night, the first of which shows Peng entering a restaurant wearing a coat, hat and mask. There is a sign that says Beijing Yibin Guesthouse, a Beijing restaurant owned by the local Sichuan government. AFP could not verify the authenticity of the videos.

Hu tweeted in English that the second video shows “Peng Shuai having dinner with his coach and friends in a restaurant. The content of the video clearly shows that they were taken on Saturday Beijing time. “The conversation revolved around” tennis matches. “A man sitting with Peng and two women said” tomorrow is November 20, “but one of the The women correct him by saying “it’s the 21st,” to imply that the video was recorded on Saturday. Peng can be seen relaxed in the video taken late at night with a mobile phone.

Forced sexual encounter

Peng’s message against Zhang was the first complaint of its kind involving a member of the high command of the Communist Party of China. It was posted briefly in early November on the player’s official Weibo account (equivalent to Twitter in China), before being censored in the Asian country.

In the message, attributed to Peng Shuai but whose authenticity could not be verified by AFP, the tennis player indicated that Zhang Gaoli resumed contact with her when he retired from politics in 2018, evoking a forced sexual encounter. Since those accusations, Peng Shuai’s fate raises many questions.

Steve Simon, president of the WTA, which manages the women’s tennis circuit, considered the videos “insufficient” to show that Peng Shuai is in good health, since the images do not show whether the tennis player “is free in her decisions and her Actions”. “I have made it clear what must happen, our relationship with China is at a crossroads,” added the WTA president, organization that has threatened to terminate lucrative contracts with China if it does not receive information on Peng’s health status and whereabouts.

The UN asked for proof that she is safe and sound, while the hashtag #WhereisPengShuai (# Where isPengShuai) spread like wildfire on social media. And, on Saturday, the British Foreign Office also urged China to provide “verifiable evidence” on the “security and location” of the tennis player.

Pronouncement of tennis players

Meanwhile, four photos of the tennis player were posted on Friday afternoon on the Twitter account @shen_shiwei, identified as “media affiliated with the Chinese state” by the social network. AFP could not independently establish when those photos were taken. After the photos, the videos that appeared on Saturday and Sunday began to be released, while the Chinese government has refused to comment on the case. The Peng Shuai case is censored in China and the tennis player’s environment did not want to comment on it.

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Former Vice Prime Minister Zhang Gaoli, who went from 2013 to 2018 one of the seven most powerful political leaders from China, did not publicly react to the accusations.

Numerous tennis players have referred to the case in recent days to demand news of the player. The last ones were on Saturday Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, who wished in statements to European media that the champion “is well” and appealed to the union “of the tennis family.”