IOC interview with Peng Shuai raises questions
The HinduOut of public view for almost three weeks, Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai has appeared in a video call with International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach. The IOC and the Chinese government would like this to be the end of the Peng saga, which has run since Nov. 2 when she accused former vice premier Zhang Gaoli of sexual assault. Even after the IOC video was published on Sunday, the WTA repeated what Simon has been saying for more than a week, calling for a full, fair, and transparent investigation “without censorship.” According to the IOC, Peng held a 30-minute call with Bach, and he recounted in a statement that she is “safe and well, living at her home in Beijing, but would like to have her privacy respected at this time.” The IOC said Bach invited Peng, a former No. Yaqiu Wang, a China-born spokeswoman for Human Rights Watch, tweeted that the IOC is now “actively playing a role in the Chinese government's enforced disappearance, coercion and propaganda machinery.” The concerns for Peng from the WTA and so many of its top and retired players — Naomi Osaka, Serena Williams, and Martina Navratilova — and global attention on the WhereIsPengShuai social media movement have put pressure on China, even if the news of her allegations is blacked out at home. "By taking a nonchalant approach to Peng Shuai's disappearance and by refusing to mention her serious allegations of sexual assault, IOC president Bach and the IOC Athletes' Commission demonstrate an abhorrent indifference to sexual violence and the well-being of female athletes.”