How China tries to bury Peng Shuai case, with blessing of IOC

The Chairman of the International Olympic Committee spoke with the former tennis champion, disappeared for two weeks, without addressing his allegations of rape against a Chinese senior.

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buried the Peng Shuai case? The slogan “where is Peng Shuai” is in any case exceeded. Sunday, November 21, the former tennis champion appeared in public during a junior competition. The day before, state media journalists had shared videos of her participating in a dinner in town. And Sunday evening, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) published a statement announcing that its president, Thomas Bach, had been able to talk to the player. After more than two weeks without news following his accusations of rape against a Chinese senior, on November 2, we now know where Peng Shuai is: she is in Beijing, probably at home, and was able to go out several times to get to events. Nothing says, on the other hand, that the champion is free.

As such, the IOC Communiqué is particularly light: the organization, which is preparing to organize the Olympic Winter Games in Beijing in February, relayed the communication of Beijing, without evoking the allegations of rape against Former number seven of the regime, Zhang Gaoli, at the origin of the case. “Peng Shuai thanked the IOC for his interest, for his well-being. She explained that she was healthy and saved to her home in Beijing, but she would like her private life to be respected. It’s for that That she prefers spending time with her family and friends right now. “To believe the organization, everything is fine for Peng Shuai and better let her alone.

After the New York Times, Peng Shuai was accompanied during the interview with a “friend” to help him speak English, while she speaks the language fluently after fifteen years on the circuit international. In the past, China has often staged the forced confessions of dissidents, intellectuals or former fallen leaders.

Date of the day

The IOC call comes to crown Beijing’s propaganda efforts this weekend. A campaign that avoids official channels: the media and Chinese diplomacy completely spread the subject. And for good reason, the case remains censored in China. These are state-of-the-art media journalists who have been responsible for distilling photos and videos from the Player on Twitter, a platform blocked in China. After a series of so-called photos from the WeChat account of M me Peng Friday, several videos appeared this weekend.

Saturday, the editor of the very nationalist Global Times, Hu Xijin, who claims his bonds with the power, published two short videos of the “dining with his coach and girlfriends in a restaurant” in Beijing and Tours the same day, according to him. The conversation is about … the date of the day. A second video focuses on the date registered at the entrance of the establishment to prove the authenticity of the document, as in the “evidence of life” of hostage takers.

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/Media reports.