Tennis player Peng Shuai denounced former Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli for sexual assault and completely disappeared for two weeks.
The United Nations (UN) Office for Human Rights reiterated this Tuesday that the “Serious allegations of sexual assault” launched earlier this month by tennis player Peng Shuai against former Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli.
“The most important thing is that the Chinese authorities guarantee a transparent investigation” as a result of such accusations, the spokeswoman for that United Nations office Marta Hurtado said at a press conference.
The official source insisted that “the tennis player’s freedom of movement and expression must be fully respected.”
Hurtado declined to comment on whether the The video call held last Sunday by Peng with the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Thomas Bach, is according to the UN office sufficient evidence to show that the tennis player is well.
Concern for Peng, a former number one in the women’s doubles circuit, began after she posted a letter on social media on November 2 (censored after a few minutes) in which she accused former Vice Premier Zhang of having tried to force her to have sex at the politician’s home.
The 35-year-old athlete accused him of forcing her to have a relationship with him three years ago and then the player disappeared completely for two weeks.
She also assured that Zhang’s wife was aware and “stood guard outside.” In his message, Peng Shuai evoked feelings for Zhang Gaoli, with “personalities that fit well”, and reproached him for having dragged him into a clandestine and toxic love affair, imposing on him an uncomfortable coexistence with his wife.
The women’s tennis association (WTA) has led the calls to know the whereabouts of Peng, threatening to suspend its relationship with China, and maintains its doubts about the situation of the tennis player, even after the IOC reported their conversation. with her.
“Malevolencia”
The Chinese authorities considered this Tuesday that the case of the tennis player Peng Shuai is being exaggerated “with malevolence”, after the international concern that the athlete raised.
“I think some have to stop deliberately and malevolently exaggerating and politicizing this issue.”a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Zhao Lijian, told reporters.
Until Tuesday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry had refused to comment on the issue, arguing that it was not for the diplomatic field.
However, Zhao Lijian finally reacted to this issue that has put his country in the international spotlight for several weeks, without giving details about who he was addressing with his statements.
35-year-old Peng Shuai accused former Vice Prime Minister Zhang Gaoli in early November of forcing her into a relationship with him three years ago, and then the player disappeared completely for two weeks.
Many world-renowned tennis players, from Chris Evert to Novak Djokovic, and several Western countries asked China to give details about the athlete’s whereabouts and her health.
The tennis champion appeared on Sunday in a videoconference with the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Thomas Bach, guaranteeing that she was well.
The WTA, the body that runs the professional women’s tennis circuit, threatened to withdraw from China if President Xi Jinping’s regime did not give details about the accusations the player had launched.
The issue remains taboo in China, both in the media and on social media. The MeToo campaign against sexual harassment is incipient in this country and until now it has not targeted men who hold or have held positions of importance.
The accused
Looking austere and timid, Zhang Gaoli was one of the most discreet leaders of the Chinese communist regime. But at 75, the former deputy prime minister finds himself at the heart of a sex scandal with worldwide repercussions.
Born in November 1946 in Jinjiang, eastern Fujian province, he was a member for five years of the elite of the Chinese regime: the permanent committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party, which has seven members, including President Xi Jinping.
Last in the hierarchy of this body, where he was in charge of supervising large infrastructures, he was considered the seventh in the country’s command line.
For five years “Zhang Gaoli was very gray,” says political scientist Willy Lam of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. “He did not distinguish himself in any way and his name was not associated with any particular achievement,” he insists.
Before leaving power in 2018, he led a working group on the preparation of the Beijing Winter Olympics, which will begin in February.
In this capacity, in June 2016 he received in Beijing the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Thomoas Bach, the same one who spoke by videoconference on Sunday with Peng Shuai, who told him that everything was going well.
Zhang Gaoli is considered close to Prime Minister Li Keqiang and, above all, to former President Jiang Zemin (1993-2003) who, despite his 95 years, retains influence in the spheres of power as the leader of the well-known faction of the Shanghai Group.
“He was able to climb the hierarchy thanks to the support of powerful leaders”, dice Lam a AFP.
The outbreak of this scandal days before the opening of a major meeting of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party has led some to assume that Zhang was the collateral victim of a dispute between Xi and his predecessor Jiang Zemin.
At the meeting, Xi Jinping passed a resolution on the party’s 100-year history that spoke highly of his tenure and downplayed Jiang Zemin’s contributions.
It is “possible” that Xi Jinping “sought to issue a warning to the Shanghai Group” by attacking one of its members just before the meeting, says Willy Lam.
Although his successes are discreet, Zhang Gaoli has not been so far embroiled in financial affairs like many other Chinese officials linked to large companies. “His balance is relatively clean”, says Lam.
With a degree in economics, Zhang spent much of his career in a public company in the oil sector in the wealthy province of Canton (south). There he began his political ascent, first as deputy governor of the province (1988) and later as number one of the party in the emerging city of Shenzhen, at the gates of Hong Kong.
Then he would take the reins of Shandong province (east) and later those of the municipality of Tianjin (north). (I)
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