Tennis star Peng Shuai – caught up in Chinese politics

Picture: AFP

The disappearance of Peng Shua is one of the greatest and most mysterious sports stories in the world today.

Today on The Detail, Emile Donovan talks to Matt Brown, Newstalk ZB’s sports news director and tennis commentator, to separate the facts as we know them from speculation; what could this strange situation mean for the future of women’s tennis? and could this be a watershed in the way sports organizations deal with the intersection of sport and politics.

Here is what we know: November 3, Peng Shuai sent a message on the Chinese social media site Weibo.

It outlined the occasional relationship he had had for more than 10 years with a senior Communist Party official, Zhang Gaol, who is married and 40 years older than him.

In this post, he details the complex, stressful relationship that developed over a decade that Zhang’s wife was supposed to know about. Peng talks about how well he feels Zhang and Zhang to be, how anxious he was when he seemed to end the relationship seven years ago after the promotion.

But he also paints a picture of an emotionally violent relationship: one in which one person has far more power than another; where Zhang calls for shots, forcing Peng to exploit him.

“Even if it’s like throwing eggs against a rock and moth climbing around a flame to destroy itself, I’m telling the truth about us,” he writes.

Twenty minutes after the column rose, it was dismantled.

Then Peng disappeared. For more than two weeks.

After many commentators and players had expressed concern – including those like Serena Williams, Naomi Osaka and Novak Djokovic – Chinese state media released an email allegedly sent from Peng.

But the Women’s Tennis Association was not convinced. Its CEO Steve Simon said in a statement that he was “hard to believe” that the email was written by Peng and the federation was considering removing its tournaments from China.

And then the International Olympic Committee attended.

“President Thomas Bach and the vice chairman of the China Committee were involved (in a video call) … which we haven’t seen, we’ve just got a small statement saying we talked for half an hour, he’s fine, etc.,” Brown says.

“It just felt like involvement to me. Nothing supported (Peng) and his accusations – it was really trying to almost reassure the world media that they were so worried about Peng Shua.

Since then, other pictures and videos have been published about Peng – about him having dinner with friends and attending a teen tennis tournament.

But commentators living in China have continued to ask questions about the veracity of the images and whether they have been coerced.

Meanwhile, the WTA has held firmly its position that the Chinese government must prove that Peng is safe and well – either by allowing him to leave the country if he wants to, or by allowing him to talk unsupervised with Steve Simon.

If nothing happens, Simon says the organization is considering the future of its commercial relationship with China – a major player in the WTA, hosting numerous tournaments and contributing hundreds of millions in sponsorship revenue.

The loss of China would be an omnipotent blow to the WTA – but its principled stance differs sharply from that of other sports organizations, which have quickly retreated after their own. athletes have said things which have shocked the government of the world’s most populous country.

Matt Brown says there is little concrete detail in this situation and there is still plenty of water under the bridge, but he admires the WTA’s attitude and believes it could be a precedent for the future when sports organizations are involved. the gloomy world of geopolitics.

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