The Tennis WTA is threatening to take tournaments out of China against Peng By Reuters

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By Tony Munroe

BEIJING (Reuters) – Tennis star Peng Shuai was shouted about the whereabouts of Chinese men on Friday when the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) said they were not happy with the response to their sexual assault when they said they were ready to take their tournaments out of China. allegation.

The world’s first former number of double peng has not been seen or heard publicly on Chinese social media since early November when former prime minister Zhang Gaoli forced sexual intercourse https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-tennis-star-peng- says-ex-vice-premier-forced-her-into-sex-2021-11-03 and then they had an on-off consensual relationship.

Neither Zhang nor the Chinese government have given an opinion on his allegation. Peng’s post on social media was quickly wiped out and the subject was prevented from being discussed on the highly censored Internet in China.

Concerns https://www.reuters.com/article/tennis-china-peng-itf/tennis-itf-says-player-safety-top-priority-amid-concerns-over-chinas-peng-idINL1N2S91BO global tennis community and has grown beyond Peng’s safety and direction since his allegation, the WTA has called for an investigation and the world’s top players, including Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka, tweeted #WhereIsPengShuai.

WTA CEO Steve Simon said Thursday that a tour of several U.S. media outlets would look into bringing out tournaments worth ten million dollars from China.

“We’re certainly ready to get out of our business and deal with all the complications that that entails,” he told CNN in an interview.

“This is definitely bigger than this business. Women should be respected and not censored.”

Hu Xijin, the editor of China’s state-run media, measured the scandal on Twitter (NYSE 🙂 early Friday, saying he did not believe it was the target of the retaliation.

“As a person who knows the Chinese system, I don’t think Peng Shuai has received the retaliation and repression speculated by foreign media for the things people talked about,” Hu Xijin, editor of the Global Times newspaper, said on Twitter.

The official Times of the Communist Party is published in the Global Times, and Huk has an active presence on Twitter, which is blocked in China. He did not make a similar comment on Weibo (NASDAQ 🙂 on his official account, the equivalent of Chinese Twitter.

The problem has arisen as China prepares to host the Beijing Winter Olympics in February amid calls for global rights groups and others to boycott human rights history.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said it would not comment on the matter.

“Experience shows that calm diplomacy offers the best opportunity to find a solution to such questions,” a COI spokesman said. “That explains why the IOC will not comment further at this stage.”

U.S. Representative Jim Banks of Indiana said https://twitter.com/RepJimBanks/status/1461434960531922950?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet to the US President Joe Biden. His case with China and warning Beijing that it could have a negative impact on the Winter Olympics.

On Wednesday, WTA questioned Simon in an email https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/wtas-simon-voices-concern-over-statement-attributed-peng-2021-11-18, which is . A Chinese state media outlet also posted on Twitter, denying allegations of sexual assault by Peng.

“I find it hard to believe that Peng Shuai actually wrote the email we received or believes it is attributed to him,” he said.

As of Friday, the hashtag #WhereIsPengShuai garnered more than 32 million mentions on Facebook (NASDAQ:) Instagram, which is also blocked in China, as well as on Twitter, according to the BrandMentions hashtag analysis website.

In contrast, the issue remains highly censored in China’s tight cyberspace. As of Friday, searches for the official WTA account on Weibo yielded no results despite his account being available. Peng’s name also continues to provide search results on Weibo.

However, a few Chinese users turned to the official Weibo accounts of tennis star Williams and Novak Djokovic, who were also shocked by the situation, thanking them for releasing the statements. “Thank you for talking!” One said.