Purported Photos Of Missing Chinese Tennis Player Peng Shuai Released By

An editor at CGTN, a Chinese state broadcaster, on Friday, posted photos of the missing Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai, claiming she had recently shared them on a Chinese social media messaging app amid mounting questions about her disappearance following her claim that she was sexually assaulted by a powerful Chinese official. Twitter users instantly raised questions about “Peng’s friend,” who shared the photos and whose profile picture was that of a Chinese flag, as well as the authenticity of the WeChat account purported to be Peng’s, which appeared to have the username “Peng Shuai 2” in Chinese.“Unless and until Peng Shuai herself appears and is clearly speaking freely, any other communications should be treated with skepticism, especially when they are coming from Chinese state media,” Sophie Richardson, the China director at Human Rights Watch, told Forbes. The Chinese government’s next moves. Peng’s disappearance from public view comes at a sensitive time for China as it prepares to host the 2022 Winter Olympics. President Joe Biden said Thursday he was “considering” staging a diplomatic boycott of the upcoming Winter Games over human rights abuses in that country. Peng, a former women’s doubles No. 1, was likened to “a breeze in women’s tennis” by People’s Daily, a Chinese state-run newspaper, in 2013, according to the New York Times. After Peng and Hsieh Su-wei claimed their Wimbledon doubles title in 2013, the newspaper said: “She’ll always be our Chinese princess.”Shen posted the photos a day after Steve Simon, the head of the Women’s Tennis Association, told CNN that the organization could exit China if the country does not provide proof of her safety and investigate allegations against former vice premier Zhang Gaoli of pressuring Peng to have sex. Simon has questioned the authenticity of an email the WTA received that CGTN claimed was written by Peng. The email states that she’s “fine” and that the allegations she had made on social media against Zhang were “not true.” Mareike Ohlberg, a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund's Asia Program, wrote of the purported email: “It's not meant to convince people but to intimidate and demonstrate the power of the state.” The United Nations joined a chorus of calls for clarification of Peng’s well being. Liz Throssell, a spokesperson for the UN’s human rights office, said on Friday it was “important to have proof of her whereabouts and wellbeing” and urged for a transparent investigation into her sexual assault allegations. Peng, 35, has disappeared since posting allegations of sexual harassment against Zhang, 75, earlier this month. The WTA has repeatedly called for clarification on her whereabouts and tennis stars—Serena Williams, Naomi Osaka and Andy Murray, among others—have spoken out about Peng’s sudden disappearance. U. N.


All data is taken from the source: http://forbes.com
Article Link: https://www.forbes.com/sites/lisakim/2021/11/19/purported-photos-of-missing-chinese-tennis-player-peng-shuai-released-by-state-media-editor-spark-questions/


#peng #enews #newstodayoncnn #newsworldfox #newsworld #newstodaylocal #