Women's Tennis Association Suspends Tournaments In China Over Peng Shuai Case

WTA suspends China tournaments: The Women's Tennis Association (WTA) has announced that it will suspend all tournaments in China over concerns regarding the safety of tennis player Peng Shuai. WTA further said that the decision was also sparked by Chinese authorities' no response over demands to investigate the sexual assault allegations made by Shuai against China's former vice-premier Zhang Gaoli.

The Chief Executive of Women's Tennis Association Steve Simon in a statement said that they do not see safety in asking athletes to compete in China, since Peng Shuai is not allowed to freely communicate and there has been no effort to investigate the allegations made by her.

"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," said Simon. The WTA posted a tweet on December 2, containing the statement, along with the following caption, "With the full support of the WTA Board of Directors, I am announcing the immediate suspension of all WTA tournaments in China, including Hong Kong."

On November 18, the WTA had threatened to pull out of China regardless of the millions of dollars that it might lose. "We're definitely ready to pull our business and deal with all the complications that come with it," Simon said, adding that women need "to be respected and not censored."

Peng Shuai case

Former doubles world number one Peng Shuai had shared a post on Weibo last month, a Chinese social networking platform, alleging that she was sexually assaulted by Gaoli. Rather than investigating her allegations, Shuai's post was immediately censored and subsequently pulled down from the internet by the Chinese authorities. Shuai's case revived the #MeToo movement in the country, which had started in China four years back. This was the first time that a person was publicly alleging sexual assault by a top brass political leader of the Chinese Communist Party.

Chinese authorities' decision to censor Shuai's voice deeply worried many global tennis players and associations. The worry furthered when the 35-year-old player went missing. As the players started posting on social media with hashtags where is Peng Shuai and lending support to the player, suddenly pictures of an email sent to WTA by Peng Shuai surfaced on Twitter.

It was posted by the editor of a state-led media organisation Global Times. The post failed to reassure the worried public as it had awkward language and showed cursor. Then, videos and pictures of Peng Shuai at home, a restaurant and a tennis event emerged. All by state-led media houses.

On November 21, the International Olympics Committee statement came out with a statement that they had a video chat with player for 30-minutes and the player reassured them that she was safe and at her home. She sought privacy and wanted to spend time with her family.

The WTA raised suspicion on how IOC was able to make the call and chat with the player so suddenly when everyone else has been trying to establish a contact. Though, IOC called these worries 'silly', the WTA remained adamant.

On December 1, European Union joined the voices of people supporting Peng Shuai and asked Chinese authorities for verifiable proof of her safety. They also demanded a fair investigation into the sexual assault allegation against Gaoli.

Image Credit: Sky Sports

Suggested Reading:

Peng Shuai Disappearance Case: European Union Demands Verifiable Proof Of Safety

Missing Or Safe? Peng Shuai Connects With Olympic Committee Head Over Video Call

Peng Shuai Case: WTA Head Threatens To Pull Out Of China Regardless Of Loss

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