Chinese tennis star says she is safe in video call with Olympic official: IOC
“She explained 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’s statement said.
BEIJING — Chinese tennis star Peng Shaui had a video call on Sunday with the president of the International Olympic Committee and told him she was safe and well, the IOC said in a statement.
Photos and videos of Peng at a tournament in Beijing earlier on Sunday had done little to dampen international concerns, following a nearly three-week public absence after she alleged that a former senior Chinese official sexually assaulted her.
In a statement, the IOC said that at the start of the 30-minute call with its president Thomas Bach, Peng had thanked the IOC for its concern about her well-being.
“She explained 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’s statement said.
“That is why she prefers to spend her time with friends and family right now. Nevertheless, she will continue to be involved in tennis, the sport she loves so much.”
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France’s foreign minister had earlier called on the Chinese authorities to provide more reassurance, echoing a statement by the Women’s Tennis Association that the images were “insufficient” proof.
“I’m expecting only one thing: that she speaks,” France’s Jean-Yves Le Drian told LCI television, adding that there could be unspecified diplomatic consequences if China did not clear up the situation. The United States and Britain had also called for China to provide proof of Peng’s whereabouts.
Current and former tennis players, from Naomi Osaka to Serena Williams to Billie Jean King, had joined the calls seeking to confirm she was safe, using the social media hashtag #WhereIsPengShuai?
The concern over Peng came as global rights groups and others have called for a boycott of the Winter Olympics in Beijing in February over China’s human rights record.
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On Nov. 2, Peng posted on Chinese social media that former Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli had sexually assaulted her several years ago.
Neither Zhang nor the Chinese government have commented on her allegation. Peng’s social media post was quickly deleted and the topic has been blocked from discussion on China’s heavily censored internet.
Hu Xijin, editor-in-chief of the state-backed Global Times, posted a 25-second video on Twitter on Sunday that showed her smiling, waving and autographing giant tennis balls for children at the Fila Kids Junior Tennis Challenger Finals tournament. The Global Times is published by the People’s Daily, the official newspaper of China’s ruling Communist Party.
The tennis event’s official WeChat page shows photos of her at the tournament. Peng, 35, was the world No.1 doubles player in 2014, the first Chinese player to achieve a top ranking, after winning the doubles titles at Wimbledon in 2013 and the French Open in 2014.
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