The athlete, whose public appearances cause many questions, states that there was “a lot of misunderstandings”. “I never said or written that anyone who assaulted me sexually”, “she says in a Singaporean newspaper. WTA reaffirms its “worries”.
Le Monde
Since November 2, each photo or sequence showing Peng Shuai is a nearby event. The Chinese tennis player, who had mentioned having been raped by a senior official of the Beijing regime, had disappeared from traffic before making some sporadic appearances, regularly arousing doubt.
This time, it’s a video that was published, in which Peng Shuai, for his first public speaking on this case, refutes any sexual assault. “First, I want to insist on a very important point: I have never said or written that anyone who assaulted me sexually”, Has it declared to the Singaporeian newspaper Lianhe Zaobao on the sidelines of a sporting event, in Shanghai, Sunday, December 19th.
There was “a lot of misunderstandings” on a “private order” affair, “said Peng Shuai, dressed in a red t-shirt and a black jacket, in a filmed interview with the cell phone. It also states that the letter it had written to the President of WTA, the proceeding that manages the tennis female circuit, was “entirely of [his] own will” and that she “has always been very free” .
The doubts of the WTA
The WTA did not seem convinced about the fate of the player after this interview. “These [public] appearances do not depend on WTA’s concerns about its well-being and its ability to communicate without censorship or coercion”, has advanced the organization, in a statement.
November 2, a long message published on the official Weibo account of the player (equivalent of Twitter in China) had described a sincere but upset sentimental relationship with Zhang Gaoli, before and after he cares of high functions. at the top of the communist regime. Married and 40 years old his elder, Mr. Zhang was from 2013 to 2018 one of the seven most powerful politicians of China. The message had been promptly censored and the 35-year-old player had disappeared from radar screens for three weeks, causing the worry of the world of tennis.
Sunday, before the broadcast of the former world issue interview, Qingqing Chen, a journalist of the nationalist daily Global Times, had published on social networks a seven-second video showing the player chatting with The old star basketball player Yao Ming. The journalist claims that the video was sent to him by a friend and was shot at a Nordic ski promotion event in Shanghai.
Chinese media have repeatedly published photos of the player in recent weeks, as well as a screenshot of an e-mail being assigned and where is written “everything is fine”. But their authenticity sparked important doubts. Following the public disappearance of Peng Shuai, the WTA had canceled early December all its tournaments in China and claimed a seamless investigation into the charges of the player.