There’s a lot of global pressure building about the whereabouts and safety of Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai. She’s a popular name on the WTA circuit and has been around since over a decade, during which she won herself two singles and 22 doubles titles on tour. However, the 35-year old has been literally ‘missing’ since some sexual assault allegations came up from her end earlier this month!
What were the Peng Shuai sexual assault allegations?
As per a social media post on 2nd November 2021, screenshots showed that Shuai accused former Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli of sexual assault and coercing her to have sex with him in his house. Ever since that post went viral, it has been deleted and Peng has gone completely missing since the post. Tennis and world authorities are now building pressure on China to reveal her whereabouts and give proof of her safety.
Peng’s post on Weibo, which is a Twitter-like platform owned by China only, was deleted within 30 minutes of publishing it, with the national censor board moving swiftly to wipe out all mentions of the accusation on the internet. Her Weibo account is still blocked from on the platform, where she had more than half a million followers.
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Peng Shuai’s Weibo post
WTA pull out of China?
As part of the mounting pressure on China to help with the situation, head of the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) Steve Simon said he’s willing to lose billions of dollars by pulling out of China. “We’re definitely willing to pull our business and deal with all the complications that come with it. Because this is certainly, this is bigger than the business,” he said in an interview with CNN.
Simon said WTA was in touch with the Chinese Tennis Association and the latter said that Shuai was safe in Beijing. However, attempts to reach her directly were unsuccessful. “We have reached out to her on every phone number and email address and other forms of contact. There’s so many digital approaches to contact people these days that we have, and to date we still have not been able to get a response.”
Tennis players worried
“I am devastated and shocked to hear about the news of my peer, Peng Shuai. I hope she is safe and found as soon as possible. This must be investigated and we must not stay silent,” said Serena Williams on Twitter. Naomi Osaka is also in a state of shock with the news. She posted saying, “Censorship is never OK at any cost, I hope Peng Shuai and her family are safe and OK.”
United Nations on Peng Shuai
Pressure is being built from the United Nations as well. “What we would say is that it would be important to have proof of her whereabouts and wellbeing, and we would urge that there be an investigation with full transparency into her allegations of sexual assault,” said Liz Throssell, UN Human Rights office spokesperson.
For more updates on the Peng Shuai situation, stay tuned to ReadScoops.com.
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