DIn early November, tennis player Peng Shuai accused a senior Chinese politician of sexual assault. Since this revelation, the sportswoman is hiding in silence. His silence greatly worries the boss of the WTA, manager of the women’s professional circuit, who questions both his security and the information spread by China, said to be official.
The UN on Friday asked for evidence that Chinese tennis champion Peng Shuai is doing well. “It would be important to have proof of where she is and to know if she is okay. And we urge that a transparent investigation be conducted into his allegations of sexual assault, ”OHCHR spokesperson Liz Throssell said during a press briefing at Geneva. For its part, France is “concerned” about the fate of the player, the Foreign Ministry said on Friday. “We are concerned about the lack of information on the situation of tennis player Peng Shuai, which worries the international community and sports circles,” said the Quai d’Orsay in a statement.
The tennis world is also shocked by this disappearance. “Honestly, it’s shocking that she’s gone,” world number one Novak Djokovic told reporters, while American Serena Williams said she was “upset and shocked” adding that “it must be the subject of investigation and we must not remain silent ”. “I hope that she will be found soon, because we are not talking here about a tennis match or a competition, but we are talking about human life”, for his part declared the German Alexander Zverev. .
A suspicious email that worries
The Chinese state channel CGTN unveiled, on Wednesday evening, on Twitter the screenshot of an email attributed to Peng Shuai that the Chinese player allegedly sent to the WTA management, without the authenticity of the message being able to be confirmed. confirmed. “The press release published today [mercredi] by the Chinese official media regarding Peng Shuai only increases my concern for his safety and his whereabouts, ”wrote Steve Simon in a statement released Wednesday evening. “I find it hard to believe that Peng Shuai actually wrote the email we received and that she could mean the words attributed to her,” he adds.
The remarks in the originally suspicious message contradict statements made by Peng Shuai, who accused a former deputy prime minister of coercing her into sex three years ago. “The information, especially concerning the accusation of sexual assault, is false,” said the player in this message. “I am neither missing nor in danger. I was just resting at home, everything is fine. Thanks again for hearing from me. “
Forced confessions
The content of this message raised doubts as to its authenticity: Twitter users noted that a cursor was visible on the message broadcast by CGTN, an inexplicable phenomenon for a screenshot. In the past, the Communist regime has been accused of broadcasting forced confessions of suspects on the public media. The same channel CGTN had its license withdrawn in the United Kingdom at the beginning of the year for having broadcast a “confession” attributed to a British citizen arrested in China.
“Peng Shuai’s latest statements, released by public media, should not be taken at face value,” said William Nee, of the China Human Rights Defenders Association. “The Chinese government has a long experience of arbitrarily detaining people involved in controversial cases, preventing them from speaking freely and forcing them to make public statements,” he said in a statement. “It’s up to the Chinese government to prove that she is not in detention. “
“Incredible courage”
The head of the international organization of women’s tennis observed that Peng Shuai had “shown incredible courage in describing sexual violence which she says she was the victim of by a former senior Chinese leader.” He also claims “independent and verifiable proof” that the player is safe. “I tried several times to reach her by different means of communication, in vain,” he underlines, demanding that Peng Shuai “be allowed to express himself freely, without coercion or intimidation of any kind” .
The 35-year-old former doubles world number one accused former vice-premier Zhang Gaoli, who was one of China’s seven most powerful politicians from 2013 to 2018, on social media. for forcing her to have sex before making her his mistress. The accusation was briefly posted on November 2 on the player’s official Weibo account (a Chinese equivalent of Twitter). China had very quickly blocked all reference to this message, which Agence France-Presse was not able to confirm if it had been written by it.
Since then, the player has not communicated or made a public appearance and Zhang Gaoli has never publicly reacted to the accusations. Questioned several times, the spokespersons of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said to ignore everything about this affair and refused to comment, arguing that it was not a diplomatic file. Any reference to this case remains censored on the Chinese Internet.
Washington is alarmed
The United States is “very concerned” about the fate of Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai, who disappeared after accusing a former senior Chinese Communist Party official of raping her, a spokeswoman for the Chinese tennis court said on Friday. White House, Jen Psaki.
Washington calls on Beijing to provide “verifiable” and “independent” evidence regarding the athlete’s safety and whereabouts, she added.
“We know that (the Chinese government) has zero tolerance for people speaking out, and a track record of silencing those who speak out,” Psaki said.
