6th November, Dharamshala: According to a screenshot of a post made to her verified social media account late Tuesday, Peng Shuai, China’s biggest tennis star, accused former Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli of sexually abusing her and then pushing her into a sexual relationship. On Tuesday night, professional tennis player Peng Shuai, 35, posted a long statement on her verified Weibo social media account describing the claims. It was taken down within minutes, but screen captures were widely circulated. The country’s internet censors moved quickly to suppress any discussion of the incident, barring particular search phrases as well as recent mentions of the alleged perpetrators.
Zhang and his wife brought Peng over for a supper roughly three years ago, according to her post. According to the report, Zhang then forced Peng to have intercourse. “That afternoon, I didn’t agree at first and kept crying,” according to the post.
Peng, a former world No. 1 in doubles tennis, claimed in the message that she was sexually assaulted during an otherwise consensual, on-again, off-again relationship with Zhang Gaoli, a former vice-premier who served on China’s Politburo Standing Committee and was one of President Xi Jinping’s most powerful officials.
It is not the first time a high-profile individual in China has been accused of sexual assault. But such claims have never been brought against a powerful former official in the country’s one-party regime before.
Peng said she had consensual intercourse with Zhang, who is married, multiple times in the now-deleted post, which did not contain a precise timeline of events. However, she claimed that one of these encounters was not voluntary.
Weibo users were unable to search for Peng’s profile or comment on her prior posts this week because internet searches or comments on the alleged assault were restricted. The word “tennis” was also blocked, preventing the platform’s 500 million+ users from discussing the sport directly.
Zhang, who is 75 or 76 years old, was China’s senior vice-premier from 2013 to 2018 and a member of the Politburo Standing Committee, the country’s highest leadership.