China is facing its most explosive #MeToo storm to date after one of its biggest tennis stars Peng Shuai alleged online that she had been sexually assaulted by a retired senior official in the ruling Communist Party.
The country’s internet censors swiftly tried to scrub any mention of the issue by blocking certain search terms and recent mentions of the people allegedly involved.
On Tuesday night, a long message detailing the allegations was posted on the verified Weibo social media account of professional tennis player Peng Shuai, 35. It was deleted within minutes but screen grabs have been widely shared, including by Bill Bishop, who writes the influential Sinocism newsletter and confirmed to NBC News that he saw the live post before it was removed.
NBC News did not see the post before it was deleted from Peng’s account, which has more than half a million followers. It was not clear whether she deleted the post or whether it was done by China’s censors.
Peng, who was once ranked world No. 1 in doubles tennis, said in the message that she was sexually assaulted during an otherwise consensual, on-and-off affair with Zhang Gaoli, a former vice premier who served on China’s Politburo Standing Committee and was one of the country’s most powerful officials behind President Xi Jinping.
The Information Office of the State Council, China’s ruling administrative body, has not responded to requests for comment on the allegations.
Zhang is one of the most senior officials in the Chinese Communist Party in recent years, and as such his contact details are not publicly available, so he could not be contacted directly.
The Chinese Tennis Association did not immediately respond to a request for comment. It is not clear who manages or represents Peng and no one from her team could be contacted.
Asked about the matter Wednesday at a regular press briefing, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said he was “not aware of it” and that it was “not a diplomatic question.”
It is not the first time a high-profile figure in China has been accused of sexual assault following the #MeToo movement that swept the world in 2017. But never before have such allegations been leveled at such a powerful former official in the country’s one-party state.
In the now-deleted post, which did not include a clear timeline of events, Peng said she had consensual sex with Zhang, who is married, several times over the past 10 years. But she said one of these occasions was nonconsensual. She did not say exactly when the alleged assault took place and said she was unable to provide evidence of her allegations.
“That afternoon, I was very afraid. I didn’t expect it to be like this,” she said in the post on Weibo, a Chinese social media platform similar to Twitter. “I didn’t agree to have sex with you and kept crying that afternoon.”
It’s not clear why Peng’s allegations emerged now, but they come at a politically sensitive time for the Communist Party, which is holding a key meeting in Beijing next week. The event is crucial to Xi’s plans to secure an unprecedented third term at next year’s party congress, which takes place every five years.
This week, internet searches or comments about the alleged assault were blocked on Weibo, and users were unable to search for Peng’s profile or comment on her previous posts. The word “tennis” was also censored, meaning the platform’s 500 million-plus users were not able to directly discuss the sport at all.
Zhang, who is 75 or 76, served as China’s senior vice premier from 2013 to 2018 and was a member of its top leadership, the seven-member Politburo Standing Committee, during that time.
The inner working of China’s government is rated by watchdogs as one of the most opaque in the world. It places severe limits on freedom of speech, especially when it comes to criticism of the Communist Party and its senior officials.
On Thursday, an email purportedly from a Chinese professional tennis player that a Chinese state media outlet posted on Twitter has increased concerns about her safety as the sport’s biggest stars and others abroad call for information about her well-being and whereabouts.
So far, those calls have been met by silence.
Chinese officials have said nothing publicly since the accusation about two weeks ago by Grand Slam doubles champion Peng Shuai that she was sexually assaulted by a former top government official. The first #MeToo case to reach the political realm in China has not been reported by the domestic media and online discussion of it has been highly censored.
Steve Simon, the chairman and CEO of the Women’s Tennis Association, questioned the authenticity of the email intended for him, in which Peng says she is safe and that the assault allegation is untrue. It was posted Thursday by CGTN, the international arm of Chinese state broadcaster CCTV.
“I have a hard time believing that Peng Shuai actually wrote the email we received or believes what is being attributed to her,” Simon wrote.
The statement, he added, “only raises my concerns as to her safety and whereabouts.”
Simon has demanded a full investigation, and the WTA said it is prepared to pull tournaments out of the country if it doesn’t get an appropriate response. Top players including Naomi Osaka and Novak Djokovic have spoken out, and the hashtag WhereisPengShuai is trending online.
China has largely suppressed a #MeToo movement that flourished briefly in 2018 and is forging ahead with the Beijing Winter Olympics in February despite boycott calls by activists and some overseas politicians over China’s human rights record.
Asked repeatedly about the case, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said again on Thursday that he is unaware of it.
The 35-year-old Peng is a former No. 1-ranked player in women’s doubles who won titles at Wimbledon in 2013 and the French Open in 2014.
Source: NBC/VOA/Associated Press
