The complaint made by the tennis player last November on social networks was censored in China and aroused international consternation.
The Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai denied having accused someone of sexual abuse, in his first statements to the press since he publicly revealed that a senior Communist Party official forced to have sex.
But his statement did not appease international consternation over his situation. The Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) expressed doubts that the tennis player has spoken “without censorship and coercion.”
Peng’s social media complaint in November was quickly censored in China and sparked international consternation, with expressions of concern of the UN and world tennis stars.
But in statements to Liane Zaobao, a Singaporean Chinese-language newspaper, the doubles champion at Wimbledon and the French Open denied having made the complaint.
“I want to highlight a very important point: I never said or wrote anything accusing someone of sexually assaulting me,” Peng, 35, said in images apparently recorded with a mobile phone at a sporting event in Shanghai.
“I would like to emphasize this point very clearly,” he added.
Given this, the women’s tennis body said in a statement that “these appearances (of Peng) do not alleviate or address the WTA’s great concerns about her well-being and her ability to communicate without censorship and coercion.”
The organization insisted on demanding a “comprehensive, fair and transparent investigation, uncensored”.
Complaint
Peng posted on the Weibo platform, the Chinese version of Twitter, that former Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli, a septuagenarian, forced her to have sex in an on-off relationship of several years.
The message was quickly deleted from the Chinese network, but screenshots were uploaded on Twitter and generated worldwide reactions.
In the Zaobao video, when asked about the message on Weibo, Peng replied that it was a “Private matter” about which there are “many misunderstandings”, without going into details.
Previously, the Chinese state press had published images of Peng, including some of her at a tennis tournament.
He also published a screenshot from an email that Peng wrote to the WTA saying “everything is fine.”
But that didn’t ease the worry about Peng.
WTA President Steve Simon said he “finds it hard to believe” Peng’s email and questioned whether she is free to speak openly.
Dressed in a red T-shirt and dark jacket, both with the word “China” printed on it, Peng told Zaobao that the mail was legitimate and written “entirely of (his) own will.”
In the video, a person is heard asking if he has been under surveillance since he made the accusation, to which he replied that I had always “been free”.
Hours earlier, an unverified video uploaded to the internet by a Chinese government journalist shows Peng talking to basketball star Yao Ming and two other Chinese sports figures, Olympic sailing champion Xu Lijia and retired table tennis player Wang Liqin.
The WTA called for Peng’s allegations to be fully investigated and suspended all of its tournaments in China and Hong Kong. (D)
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