In the aftermath of the WTA announcing that they have suspended all of their tournaments in China and Hong Kong over concerns about the welfare of Peng Shuai there has been a familiar trend from Chinese officials.
On Wednesday WTA CEO Steve Simon said the Asian nation has failed to address his organisations concerns about the former world No.1 doubles player who accused a former senior political official of sexual assault in a Weibo Post published on November 2nd. Shuai vanished from the public eye shortly after but returned a couple weeks later with photos and photos of her being uploaded online. Most of which were published by media which is overseen by China’s Communist Party.
One of the first to react to the suspension was Hu Xijin who is the editor-in-chief of the Global Times. The English-language branch of China’s People Daily newspaper which has one of the largest circulations in the world. On Twitter, which is banned in his home country, Xijin claimed the WTA suspension is linked to a western attack on China.
“WTA is coercing Peng Shuai to support the west’s attack on the Chinese system. They are depriving Peng Shuai’s freedom of expression, demanding that her description of her current situation meets their expectation,” he wrote.
The Global Times is known for writing various editorials which is usually from a nationalistic perspective. Since the publication of Shuai’s post, their Chinese branch has not written a single article about the topic. In fact, no top Chinese media outlet has done so with them all being regulated by the government.
Continuing his attack on Simon and the WTA, Xijin claimed that the suspension would not have a significant financial impact on the governing body because those tournaments had a ‘slim chance of being held due to COVID-19.’ A bold prediction considering most of those events will not take place until the second half of 2022. In 2019 nine WTA tournaments in China had a combined prize money pool of more than $30M.
“Steve Simon is boycotting in a high profile manner some events that only had a slim chance of being held due to COVID-19. For one thing, it will not bring additional economic losses to the WTA, for another, it garner attention from western countries for himself and the WTA,” Xijin wrote in another Tweet.
China Global Television Network (CGTN) is the international division of the China Central Television (CCTV), which is owned by the state. They have published just two articles about Shuai this year. One was about her meeting with the IOC that made made no reference to her allegations. The other was an editorial published on Wednesday titled ‘Politicizing sports is a lose-lose policy.’ It was written by American analyst Andrew Korybko who is based in Russia and the website note that the article does not necessarily reflect their view. It is one of the first articles published on a Chinese government-back website that acknowledged Shuai’s post. Although it was minimal to say the very least.
“Peng took some time for herself after her social media post last month, which unexpectedly generated a disproportionate amount of global attention from ill-intended foreign observers. She’s since reappeared in the public eye and even spoken to Olympic officials.” It reads.
As for the Chinese Tennis Association, they have also issued a statement. Although there has been no mention of it on their official website. Instead, it came up via Global Times through their social media sites and on their website. An unsurprising situation considering China has censored Shuai’s allegations. Coincidentally The Global Times said they have exclusively obtained the statement. So exclusive that it wasn’t even published on any Chinese-language website first?
“The Chinese Tennis Association (CTA) expressed its indignation and firm opposition on Thursday to the unilateral decision made by the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) on Wednesday to suspend tournaments in China, citing so-called concerns about the well-being of Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai,” the statement reads.
As for the Chinese government they have stayed largely silent on the issue throughout and nothing has been heard from Zhang Gaoli. The former vice-premier who Shuai accused of sexual abuse. During a press conference foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin, responded by saying “We’ve already expressed our view. We’ve always been against behaviours politicising sports.”
As China continues to argue that they are being ill treated by the west, evidence of censorship is still visible. Kerry Allen is a China media analyst for the BBC. After the WTA’s announced the suspension of China, posts on their Weibo account (the main social media network in China) have been restricted. Meaning users could not comment or share them. Something which has happened to Shuai’s account. According to the New York Times, people in China are now using code names in order to talk about Shuai online to avoid being censored by authorities.
In a separate development the IOC confirmed that they had a second meeting with Shuai who they say is “safe and well, given the difficult situation she is in.” The governing body said they have offered her ‘wide-ranging’ support and have already agreed to meet with her in Beijing in January. Just weeks before China holds the Winter Olympic Games.
The IOC statement didn’t mention if their meeting with Shuai was before or after the WTA’s announcement.
