The president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Thomas Bach, announced this Sunday (21) that he made a video call with Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai, whose lack of information about his whereabouts has generated a mobilization campaign on social media in recent days.
According to a statement released by the IOC, the chairman of the IOC Athletes Commission, Emma Terho, and the IOC representative in China, Li Lingwei, also participated in the conversation. According to the report, in the 30-minute call, Peng Shuai expressed appreciation for her welfare concerns, claimed that she is safe, well and living in Beijing, but would like her privacy to be respected at this time.
“I was relieved to see that Peng Shuai was fine, it was our main concern. She looked relaxed. I offered her our support and to get in touch at any time that was convenient, for which she obviously thanked her,” said Emma Terho.
Athletes around the world have disseminated the hashtag #WhereIsPengShuai on Twitter in recent days. They claimed that Peng Shuai, 35, had not known his whereabouts since he published earlier this month a text in which he accused Zhang Gaoli, the country’s former vice premier and former top member of the Communist Party of China, of sexual assault.
After the hashtag was used in several Twitter posts, Chinese state-owned media group CGTN published an alleged letter from Peng to the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA), which generated suspicion. In the letter, Peng Shuai said he was fine and even denied allegations of sexual assault. Soon after, Steve Simon, president and CEO of the WTA, released a statement in which he questioned the veracity of the CGTN publication.
Chinese state media also posted footage of Peng Shuai over the weekend in an attempt to show she would be okay, but the WTA also found that records do not prove Peng is safe. According to the BBC, experts have raised doubts about a possible video editing and a posture considered artificial, a sign that, if the records are recent, Peng would be forced to act as if he was okay.
In February, Beijing will host the Winter Olympics, an event that, like the Summer Olympics, is organized by the IOC. US President Joe Biden said last week that he is considering a US diplomatic boycott of the Games over human rights abuses in China.
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