FILE PHOTO: A file picture of China’s Peng Shuai serving throughout a match on the Australian Open on January 15, 2019. REUTERS/Edgar Su/File Picture
SHANGHAI – Chinese language tennis star Peng Shuai’s video name with the president of the Worldwide Olympic Committee (IOC) doesn’t deal with or alleviate the Girls’s Tennis Affiliation’s (WTA) concern about her well-being, the WTA mentioned on Monday.
The whereabouts of former doubles world primary Peng have been a matter of worldwide concern for almost three weeks after she alleged {that a} former senior Chinese language authorities official sexually assaulted her.
She appeared at a dinner with mates on Saturday and a kids’s tennis event in Beijing on Sunday, photographs and movies printed by Chinese language state media journalists and by the event’s organizers present. However they’ve achieved little to quell considerations.
“It was good to see Peng Shuai in latest movies, however they don’t alleviate or deal with the WTA’s concern about her well-being and talent to speak with out censorship or coercion,” a WTA spokeswoman mentioned in an e-mail.
Requested concerning the name with the IOC, the spokeswoman mentioned: “This video doesn’t change our name for a full, truthful and clear investigation, with out censorship, into her allegation of sexual assault, which is the problem that gave rise to our preliminary concern.”
The IOC mentioned in an announcement that Peng held a 30-minute name with its president Thomas Bach on Sunday and thanked the Olympic group for its concern.
“She defined that she is protected and nicely, residing at her residence in Beijing, however want to have her privateness revered right now,” the IOC’s assertion mentioned.
“That’s the reason she prefers to spend her time with family and friends proper now. Nonetheless, she’s going to proceed to be concerned in tennis, the game she loves a lot.”
The priority over Peng comes as world rights teams and others have referred to as for a boycott of the Winter Olympics in Beijing in February over China’s human rights file. The WTA has additionally threatened to drag tournaments out of China over the matter.
On Nov. 2, Peng posted on Chinese language social media that former vice-premier Zhang Gaoli had coerced her into intercourse they usually later had an on-off consensual relationship. The submit was shortly deleted and the subject has been blocked from dialogue on China’s closely censored web.
Neither Zhang nor the Chinese language authorities has commented on Peng’s allegations.
France’s international minister referred to as on Sunday for Chinese language authorities to let Peng communicate publicly.
“I’m anticipating just one factor: that she speaks,” Jean-Yves Le Drian instructed LCI tv, including that there may very well be unspecified diplomatic penalties if China didn’t clear up the scenario. His workplace didn’t instantly reply to a request for touch upon the IOC’s assertion.
The USA and Britain have additionally referred to as for China to offer proof of Peng’s whereabouts.
Present and former tennis gamers, together with Naomi Osaka and Billie Jean King, joined the calls in search of to substantiate she was protected, utilizing the social media hashtag #WhereIsPengShuai?
Males’s singles world No.1 Novak Djokovic mentioned it will be unusual to carry tournaments in China except the “horrific” scenario was resolved.
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