As international pressure increases to obtain information on the situation of Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced on Sunday, November 21 that its president, Thomas Bach, had spoken to him at the meeting. ‘a thirty-minute videoconference.
According to the IOC press release, the sportswoman “Explained that she was safe and sound at her home in Beijing but that she would like her privacy to be respected.” This call was made with the President of the Athletes’ Commission, Emma Terho, and Chinese Olympic Committee member Li Lingwei. The conditions of the call and the type of pressure the Chinese athlete may have experienced were not known on Sunday night.
Earlier today, Peng Shuai appeared in footage released by China at a teenage tennis tournament in Beijing, the Fila Kids Junior Tennis Challenger. But she did not speak about her situation and the dissemination of the images by journalists from the state media familiar with the manipulations raised fears that it was a forced staging. Dressed in a navy sports jacket and white sweatpants, Peng Shuai appears in photos from the event posted on the official Weibo account, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter, of the China Open.
Sexual assault charges censored
It would be his first public appearance since his sexual assault charges against a former senior Communist Party official were widely censored on the Chinese internet in early November. Peng Shuai, 35, former world number one doubles player and hometown star, had not been seen publicly since accusing 75-year-old former vice-premier Zhang Gaoli of having her coerced into intercourse during a discontinuous relationship lasting several years.
The WTA, the association responsible for world women’s tennis competitions, threatened on Friday to suspend its tournaments in China in protest against the fate of the champion. Before the IOC’s announcement, a spokesperson for the body told Reuters news agency by email that the photos and videos released on Sunday did not reassure the organization and that these elements were “Insufficient”.
A photo of Peng Shuai at the Beijing tournament was also posted on Twitter Sunday by Ding Li, a senior executive at Global D-Sports, a company specializing in organizing sporting events, who claims to be a long-time friend of the tennis player. He said the latter’s phone worked and the WTA only had to call him, but said the player did not accept interviews from foreign media. WTA boss Steve Simon told the magazine last week Time that the organization had attempted to contact Peng Shuai through several channels.
Succession of media footage from the Chinese state
Following global reactions, from tennis stars and the United Nations, Chinese state media quickly published a series of footage meant to reassure the athlete’s fate.
A video of the event, posted on Twitter by Hu Xijin, influential editor-in-chief of the official daily Global Times, shows Peng Shuai standing in the middle of a group of guests whose names are announced to the applauding audience. A journalist from Global Times tweeted another video showing Peng Shuai signing autographs for kids in what appears to be the same stadium before posing for photos with them. This last also posted footage from the opening ceremony of the tournament in which the player appears.
Mr. Hu, particularly close to power, also posted two videos of the player in the evening. “Having dinner with her trainer and friends in a restaurant” in Beijing and tours the same day, he said. Their discussion revolves around the date, in what appears to be a staging meant to reassure foreign opinions about the player’s situation.
Agence France-Presse was unable to confirm the location or the conditions under which the images were shot. And Hu Xijin made no reference to it on his Weibo account in Chinese.