By Sudouest.fr with AFP
Three videos and photos showing a smiling Peng Shuai were released on Saturday, as international pressure grows on China for information on the Chinese player’s fate.
Tennis champion Peng Shuai, 35, former world number 1 in doubles and star in her country, has not come out publicly since accusing Zhang Gaoli, a powerful 40-year-old ex-Communist Party official her eldest, for having forced her to have sex.
In that initial message, briefly posted in early November on the player’s official Weibo account before being censored on the Chinese internet, an upset sentimental relationship with married Mr. Zhang was described before he rose to high ground. functions. A “forced” sexual intercourse was mentioned.
Since these affirmations, the fate of Peng Shuai is the subject of many questions since the champion has not given a sign of life. Until this Saturday.
Media close to power
Peng Shuai showed up at the opening ceremony of a teenager tennis match final in Beijing on Sunday morning. Global Times photo reporter Cui Meng captured her at scene. pic.twitter.com/7wlBcTMgGy
— Hu Xijin Hu Xijin (@HuXijin_GT) November 21, 2021
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In one of three videos posted on Twitter by Hu Xijin, influential editor-in-chief of Global Times, a Chinese daily with a decidedly nationalist tone, the 35-year-old player appears standing in a stadium, for “the opening ceremony of the final of a teenage tennis match ”. She is seen in the middle of a group of guests whose names are announced to the applauding audience. However, there are very few spectators in the stands.
Mr. Hu, who claims a certain proximity to power, also posted two videos in the evening of the player “having dinner with her coach and friends in a restaurant” in Beijing and filmed the same day, according to him.
Confusion over dates
AFP was unable to confirm the location or the conditions in which the footage was shot. And Hu Xijin made no reference to it on his Weibo account in Chinese.
