The WTA asks for an email that is said to have come from Chinese tennis expert Peng Shuai | Women’s Issues

The WTA chief said it was hard to believe that an email published by the state media came from Peng, who went missing after criticizing the rapist.

The head of the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) doubted the validity of an email published by Chinese journalists when tennis star Peng Shuai said he was “resting at home” and that the insulting remarks were “not true”.

Peng has not been seen since he criticized the chief of violence earlier this month.

WTA chief Steve Simon said the email, which was distributed on state radio Wednesday and sent to the WTA, had added to his concern for the player.

“I find it hard to believe that Peng Shuai actually wrote the email we received or believed what he said he did,” Simon said in a statement.

The email, which was distributed by CGTN state publisher without a date, title or signature, began: “Hello everyone this is Peng Shuai” and said he did not confirm or confirm the “recent news” about him on the WTA page.

“The allegations in the document, including allegations of rape, are not true,” she said. “I’ve been resting at home and everything is fine.”

Peng revealed in a lengthy statement this month that the Deputy Prime Minister had forced her to have sex with him despite repeated denials. The article was removed from its official account on Weibo, China’s official website, and Chinese state-controlled journalists have banned all reports on the matter.

The WTA responded to the case the following week, urging government officials not to engage in any “serious act of violence.”

Other players have also spoken including Japanese tennis player Naomi Osaka.

In a Twitter post – under the hashtag #WhereIsPengShuai – Osaka wrote: “I don’t know if you follow these stories but I was recently informed of a missing football player as soon as he confessed to being raped. Censorship never ends.”

Peng, 35, said in his now-defunct letters that Zhang Gaoli forced him to have sex even though he repeatedly refused to follow a tennis game three years ago. Zhang, now 75, was the Deputy Prime Minister from 2013 until his retirement five years later, as well as a member of the Politburo Power Committee of the ruling Communist Party.

Simon said he tried repeatedly until Peng, who was a top player who won titles at Wimbledon and the French Open, through “several means of communication” but to no avail.

“Peng Shuai should be allowed to speak freely without coercion or intimidation from anywhere,” he said in a statement. “Her rape case must be respected, investigated openly and without scrutiny. Women’s voices should be heard and respected, not coerced or coerced.”

Peng’s accusation is the first by another government official since the #MeToo group made a brief appearance in China in 2018.

Responding to a question on Wednesday Wednesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said he did not know Peng’s whereabouts.

“Do you think the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman is all-powerful?” Zhao told a reporter. “I urge you to ask the right authorities about the right question.”