Shuai, a tennis player from China, was a force to be reckoned with on the courts. She is a three-time Olympian who has amassed 25 tour titles over the course of her career. Her ground-breaking success aided in raising the profile of women’s tennis in China. However, last November, the 35-year-old disappeared.
After publicly accusing a former Chinese Communist official of sexual assault back in November 2021, she disappeared. Shuai said in a post on the Chinese social media platform Weibo that former Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli forced her to have sex with him. The post was promptly removed from the internet.
However, she later recanted her claims in a carefully crafted interview with French sports magazine L’Equipe in February 2022, announcing that she was leaving competitive tennis. Following the incident, the WTA suspended all of its tournaments in China and Hong Kong, and Shuai has not been seen in public since.
Given this, Simon stated in an interview with the Associated Press News that he wanted a thorough and open investigation into her allegations as well as a chance for the tour to speak with her, and none of these things have yet occurred.
“I never disappeared, everyone could see me; I never said anyone sexually assaulted me” - Peng Shuai
Peng discussed her sexual allegations in an interview with the French magazine L’Equipe. The Chinese thanked everyone who came to her aid but expressed confusion as to why it was necessary in the first place because she had never “disappeared.”
She reminded fans that the assault charges were false. In fact, Peng stated that she withdrew her Weibo post on her own initiative since it was causing a “huge misunderstanding.”
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