The Chinese Communist Party flooded social media this weekend with images of Peng Shuai, a tennis champion who disappeared after accusing a senior communist of …
The Chinese Communist Party flooded social media this weekend with images of Peng Shuai, a tennis champion who disappeared after accusing a senior communist of raping her, insisting she was neither missing nor in danger. The International Olympic Committee (IOC), one of the world’s top enablers of human rights abuses in China, also published a photo allegedly showing its president, Thomas Bach, speaking to Peng on a video call. The screen showing Peng appeared blurred in the photo and the image offered no indication of when it was taken. China is hosting the Winter Olympics next year despite global outrage at granting that honor to a nation that, in addition to apparently disappearing top athletes when politically expedient, is currently engaging in genocide, among other human rights atrocities. The Chinese government propaganda newspaper Global Times ‘ editor, Hu Xijin, published undated videos on Saturday that allegedly showed Peng at a teen tennis tournament in Beijing and dining at a restaurant. The images surfaced after the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) threatened to withdraw all of its business from China in response to Peng’s disappearance. The Chinese government broadcaster CGTN published an “email” last week that it claimed Peng sent to WTA head Steve Simon in which she insisted she was healthy and safe and urged the public not to worry about her wellbeing. Simon publicly challenged the authenticity of the email before the new video and photos surfaced. Peng has notably not addressed the accusations against former Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli,40 years her senior. In a now-deleted post on Weibo, the most popular Chinese regime-controlled social media outlet, Peng accused Zhang of raping her and admitted to a years-long affair with the official. The post disappeared rapidly from the site, as did her account. Peng mysteriously returned to another Chinese regime-controlled social media site, WeChat, this weekend with images that appeared to show her lounging peacefully at home. The IOC claimed in an official statement that President Bach and several other senior Olympics officials held a conversation with Peng on Sunday. The image published alongside this claim shows Peng on a video screen sitting in front of a large collection of stuffed animals that also appeared in the photos posted to her Weibo account. The image of the video is blurred such that any date or time on the screen is not legible. Today, IOC President Thomas Bach, the Chair of the IOC Athletes’ Commission, Emma Terho, and IOC Member in China, Li Lingwei, held a video call with three-time Olympian Peng Shuai from China. Read here: https://t.
