Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai (彭帥) has given her first interview to an independent media organization since she alleged on Sina Weibo that a senior Chinese official had coerced her into sex, saying it was an “enormous misunderstanding.”
The interview with French sports daily L’Equipe came as the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said it was not up to it or anyone else “to judge, in one way or another, her position.”
According to AFP, Peng also told L’Equipe that she was retiring from professional tennis, citing a major injury and disruptions to travel and treatment during the pandemic.
Photo: AP
Speaking to L’Equipe in Beijing, Peng said her original statement had been misunderstood.
She said she had never accused former Chinese vice premier Zhang Gaoli (張高麗) of sexual assault and denied she had disappeared from public view afterward.
The tennis star was accompanied to the interview by the Chinese Olympic Committee’s chief of staff who also acted as translator, the report said.
L’Equipe was also required to submit questions in advance and publish her comments verbatim in question-and-answer form, as preconditions for the interview.
Peng thanked everyone for caring about her well-being, but also questioned why it had been “exaggerated.”
“I didn’t think there would be such concern and I would like to know: Why such concern?” she said.
Peng said there had been a “enormous misunderstanding” over her post, which she confirmed she deleted herself a little under 30 minutes after publishing it because she “wanted to.”
She did not give further details.
In November last year, Peng posted an essay to Weibo, describing an on-again-off-again consensual affair with the then 75-year-old, and an incident in which he allegedly pressured her into having sex after inviting her to his house to play tennis with him and his wife.
Amid what she described as “complicated feelings,” they allegedly rekindled the affair, until an argument and his failure to meet her shortly before the post.
In the L’Equipe interview, Peng reiterated comments she gave to a Singaporean state-controlled outlet in December, saying she never accused Zhang or anyone else of sexually assaulting her.
“I hope that we no longer distort the meaning of this post. And I also hope that we don’t add more hype on this,” she said. “I never said anyone sexually assaulted me.”
In her post Peng had described Zhang pressing her into having sex and her not agreeing, before relenting.
“After dinner I still did not want to, and you said you hated me! You also said that in these seven years, you never forgot me and that you would be good for me etc etc,” she wrote according to a translation by What’s On Weibo. “I was afraid and panicked and carrying the emotions of seven year ago, I agreed ... yes, we had sex.”
The post went viral despite its quick removal from Weibo.
Efforts to contact Peng proved fruitless and the topic was completely censored inside China. Global tennis stars began advocating under the hashtag #WhereIsPengShuai.
In the interview with L’Equipe, Peng also said she “never disappeared” and she did not know why such concern spread.
“It’s just that a lot of people, like my friends, including from the IOC, messaged me, and it was quite impossible to reply to so many messages,” she said, adding that she had responded to e-mails from friends and the Women’s Tennis Association, but she had difficulty accessing the organization’s online communications system.
At a news conference yesterday, IOC spokesman Mark Adams said the body as a sports organization was doing “everything we can to ensure she is happy.”
“I don’t think it’s up to us to be able to judge in one way, just as it’s not for you to judge, in one way or another, her position,” he said.
Despite multiple attempts by the WTA, only the IOC has been able to meet with Peng.
In her interview, Peng urged against combining sport and politics, a key message of Beijing during the Olympics as it faces widespread scrutiny and criticism over its human rights records, with diplomatic boycotts and social media campaigns for commercial or viewing boycotts.
“My sentimental problems, my private life, should not be involved in sports and politics,” she said.
Additional reporting by AFP
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