The WTA believes Chinese email Peng Shuai is questioning email in Women’s News

The WTA chief says it is hard to believe that the emails released by the state media came from the hands of Peng, who disappeared after being accused of sexual assault.

The head of the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) has questioned the authenticity of an email published by Chinese state media in which tennis star Peng Shuai was “resting at home” and said the allegation of sexual assault was “not true”.

Peng has not been seen since he was accused of sexually assaulting a senior official earlier this month.

WTA chief Steve Simon said the email sent to the state media on Wednesday and sent to the WTA has heightened concerns about the player.

“I find it hard to believe that Peng Shua actually wrote the email we received or thinks it is attributed to him,” Simon said in a statement.

The CGTN state announcer shared the email without a date, headline or signature as follows: “Hello everyone, this is Peng Shuai” and said he did not confirm or verify the “latest news” about him on the WTA website.

“The news on that note, including the allegation of sexual assault, is not true,” he said. “Rest at home and everything is fine.”

Peng explained in a lengthy social media post earlier this month that a former deputy prime minister had forced him to have sex with her despite repeated refusals. The post was removed from his verified account on Weibo, a major Chinese social media platform, and Chinese state-controlled media has removed all reports of the case.

The WTA received the complaint the following week, and asked authorities to treat the complaint “very seriously.”

Other players have also spoken out, including Japanese tennis player Naomi Osaka.

In a Twitter post – under the hashtag #WhereIsPengShuai – Osaka wrote: “I don’t know if you followed the news or not, but I was recently revealed to have been sexually abused and reported to a tennis player who has recently disappeared. Censorship has never cost well ahala kosta ”.

Peng, 35, complained in a now-deleted publication that Zhang Gaoli was forced to have sex, even though he repeatedly refused after a round of tennis three years ago. Zhang, now 75, served as deputy prime minister from 2013 until his retirement five years later, and a member of the Communist Party’s Standing Politburo Standing Committee.

Simon said he had repeatedly tried Peng, a former doubles player who had won titles at Wimbledon and the French Open, through “numerous means of communication,” but was unsuccessful.

“Peng Shuai should be allowed to speak freely without being forced or intimidated by any source,” he said in a statement. “His allegation of sexual assault must be respected, investigated with full transparency and without censorship. Women’s voices must be heard and respected, not censored or ordered. ”

Peng’s accusation is the first against a major government official since the #MeToo movement was briefly formed in China in 2018.

In response to a question in a daily speech on Wednesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said he was unaware of Peng’s situation.

“Do you think the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman is omnipotent?” Zhao told a reporter. “I recommend asking the appropriate authorities about the relevant question.”