The Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) on Wednesday announced its decision to suspend all tournaments in China, including Hong Kong, due to growing concerns over the safety of tennis player Peng Shuai.
“I don’t see how I can ask our athletes to compete there when Peng Shuai is not allowed to communicate freely and has seemingly been pressured to contradict her allegation of sexual assault. Given the current state of affairs, I am also greatly concerned about the risks that all of our players and staff could face if we were to hold events in China in 2022,” WTA chief executive Steve Simon said in a statement.
“If powerful people can suppress the voices of women and sweep allegations of sexual assault under the rug, then the basis on which the WTA was founded—equality for women—would suffer an immense setback. I will not and cannot let that happen to the WTA and its players,” the statement added.
The former doubles world number one disappeared from the public eye for almost three weeks after making sexual assault accusations against former Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli on November 2 on the Chinese social media platform Weibo.
Although the post was taken down minutes later, it marked the first time such a claim had been made against one of China’s political elite. Peng’s case is one of the most high profile cases in China’s #MeToo movement. In an indication of just how much of a storm Peng’s allegations created, the topic was blocked from online discussion and users are no longer possible to search for Peng Shuai or her account on Weibo. Neither Zhang nor the Chinese government have commented on her claims.
Her prolonged absence from public life, except in the company of government officials, following her remarks against the senior Chinese official, has prompted several international sports stars, organisations, and governments to call on Beijing to provide proof of Peng’s safety. To respond to speculation about her wellbeing, China’s state-owned news outlet CGTN’s international arm put out a statement that it claims was written by the tennis player, saying that she was doing well. However, critics alleged that the statement was either falsified or coerced and demanded proof of her wellbeing.
As concerns mounted, International Olympics Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach held a quick video call with the player last month. While the IOC later said that Peng was safe and doing well, the WTA argued that remained “insufficient” evidence of the three-time Olympian’s safety and did not address the organisation’s concerns about her whereabouts. Human rights group Amnesty International also warned the IOC to “be extremely careful not to participate in any whitewash of [China’s] possible human rights violations.”
The WTA suspension comes only two months before the start of the Winter Olympics 2022, which are set to be held in Beijing. The event will make Beijing the first city to host both the summer and winter Games. The IOC has not commented on whether the Peng controversy would affect the Games.
In fact, the bold move has made the WTA the only major sports organisation to show resistance to China’s increasingly authoritarian government. The decision to suspend games in the country was supported by the entire board of the WTA’s directors. The association’s founder, Billie Jean King, welcomed the decision by saying that the WTA was on “the right side of history” in making the call.