The International Olympic Committee said on Thursday that they had talked to Chinese tennis pro-Peng Shuai again and plans to meet with Peng in Beijing at the end of this month’s Winter Games.
Peng was an ex-world number one doubles player was the focus of global concern since claiming the month of November that she was suffered from being “forced” into sex by the former Vice-premier Zhang Gaoli during an on-off relationship.
Beijing’s censors swiftly removed the claim from China’s tightly monitored Internet. The 36-year old wasn’t publicly seen for almost three weeks.
Zhang hasn’t made any comments on the allegations. In contrast, Peng has given brief appearances widely promoted in the press by Chinese state media journalists as evidence of her freedom and health.
In a video chat with an editor of a Singaporean publication, she claimed she has never denied that someone sexually harassed her.
An IOC spokesperson confirmed in an announcement for AFP it was the Olympic body “kept in touch with (Peng) and had several conversations with her” since the initial phone conversation in November, with the most recent call arriving “just the past week”.
Peng spoke to the IOC that she is “looking forward to the upcoming Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 and intends to follow the competitions and her fellow Chinese Olympians closely”, According to the statement.
According to the statement, she reaffirmed that she’s “looking forward” to meeting IOC President Thomas Bach and chair of the IOC commission on athletes Emma Terho during the Games in the coming weeks.
Bach had a conversation with Peng via video conference in November of last year, with the IOC making a statement that said Peng had been “safe and well”.
The result was accusations that Bach was trying to protect Olympic hosts.
Bach has been in Beijing and has met with President Xi Jinping earlier in the week.
International concerns that Peng might not be at liberty have persisted, despite her appearances in public as well as some fans attending the Australian Open recently donning T-shirts with the message “Where is Peng Shuai?”
The tournament was the subject of a backlash this weekend after a video surfaced of security personnel directing spectators to take off the clothing and a sign in favour of Peng -the tennis legend Martina Navarrtlova to call the action “pathetic”.
The tournament was held on Tuesday. Tournament head Craig Tiley said fans could wear the T-shirts for as long as possible without causing trouble.
The Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) has suspended all its tennis tournaments in China due to Peng’s claims, saying they aren’t confident that she could freely speak her mind.
China hasn’t made any comments directly on the initial Peng social media post; however, it has stated that it is opposed to peng’s idea of “politicisation of sports”.
Beijing is scheduled to host the Olympics between February 4 and 20.
