US, UN demands evidence of missing Chinese tennis expert | Women’s Rights Issues

UN and United States on Friday sought evidence of Peng Shuai’s whereabouts, as concerns mounted on the lives of Chinese tennis players.

The actress has not appeared in public since she said on November 2 that she had been raped by a Chinese deputy prime minister.

Players of tennis, sports organizations, governments and human rights activists all spoke to a 35-year-old supporter who said in a recently deleted Weibo post that Zhang Gaoli had forced him to sleep.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki says President Joe Biden’s supervisors want China to “provide independent, convincing” evidence of Peng’s whereabouts and “deeply concerned” the world’s top player.

The United Nations has strongly urged Peng’s candidacy.

“It would be important to have proof of his whereabouts and life,” Liz Throssell, a spokeswoman for the UN Human Rights Office, told reporters in Geneva. “We call on him to investigate the allegations of rape.”

Tennis players including Naomi Osaka, Serena Williams and Novak Djokovic, the world’s top players, have also said they support the Chinese athlete.

“This is terrible. I mean, someone is missing, “Djokovic told the ATP Finals in the Italian capital Turin.” The entire tennis team should support him and his family and make sure they are safe. “

Djokovic also echoed the Women’s Tennis Association’s (WTA) statement that they were ready to end a mutually beneficial relationship with China because of Peng.

“If you have celebrations on Chinese soil without resolving this could be strange, that’s why I understand why the WTA has done this,” Djokovic said.

A former Wimbledon and French Open analyst said Zhang, who retired in 2018, “forced” him to have sex in a long-term relationship.

China remained silent on the game of tennis and on Friday the Foreign Ministry leaned on its line to be unaware of the dispute over the player.

A spokesman for the ministry, Zhao Lijian, told reporters that the matter was “not a diplomatic question and I do not know what is going on.”

‘Zero tolerance’

Peng’s posts were quickly removed from his official account on Weibo, a well-known Chinese site, even though the photos he accused of being widely distributed were widely distributed. Discussions in the case were put on hold, with CGTN state newsletter this week sharing an email from Peng to WTA boss Steve Simon saying he was “resting” at home and what he had done to her was “not true”.

Simon questioned the validity of the email, and on Friday said the WTA was “on the road” with China and continued to reach out to Peng directly.

Peng, who represented China at the Olympics in Beijing, London and Rio de Janeiro, is not the first Chinese citizen to suddenly disappear from public view in unfamiliar conditions.

Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba, the world’s largest e-commerce company, went missing in October 2020 after criticizing regulators for speaking. Soon, a large portion of Ant Group’s sale, the group’s online payment, was pulled by the government at the last minute. Ma also appeared in the video in January this year, but did not mention his disappearance.

Fan Bingbing, a Hollywood actor who was a major TV producer, went missing for three months in 2018. It was later revealed that he had been detained in a domestic prison while under investigation for tax evasion.

Peng’s remarks brought the #MeToo faction to the highest level of the ruling Communist Party in China for the first time.

“The Chinese government has officially banned the #MeToo group in the country,” said Amnesty International Chinese researcher Doriane Lau.

“Since it also has a way of not tolerating criticism, it is very important that Peng Shuai seems to be missing,” he said.