Chinese professional tennis player and former world number one in the doubles Pcheng Shui has publicly accused former Chinese Deputy Prime Minister Chang Kao-lia of forcing her to have sex a few years ago. The sports star’s post, which appeared on China’s Weibo social network, was later deleted. Reuters reported today. Pcheng Šuaj once played alongside Czech Andrey Hlaváčková, with whom she scored three tournament victories.
Pcheng Shui pictured at the 2019 Australian Open.
Edgar Su, Reuters
According to a screenshot from a verified tennis player’s account, taken late Tuesday night, Pcheng said that a former high-ranking politician made her have sex and later they had an occasional relationship. Pcheng wrote in the article that she could not substantiate the accusation with any evidence, and did not respond to the request for comment.
Reuters did not receive a reaction from the former Deputy Prime Minister and member of the Standing Committee of the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party Chang. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wen-pin said at today’s press conference that he had no information on the matter.
Unverified post from Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai, taken down from Weibo within minutes, in which she claims (again unverified) that she was assaulted by former Vice premier Zhang Gaoli, before willingly becoming his mistress. Highest public #MeToo allegation in China pic.twitter.com/lPU8fQ9vbx
— Emily Feng 冯哲芸 (@EmilyZFeng) November 2, 2021
The athlete’s post was removed from the Weibo social network, which is the Chinese equivalent of Twitter, about half an hour after its publication. However, the screenshots were further shared in private groups in the communication applications WeChat and iMessage.
The Chinese Internet is subject to severe censorship, and the private lives of top officials are a particularly sensitive issue. A search for the name Pcheng on the Weibo network did not yield any results today, and discussions on this topic were blocked.
Seventy-five-year-old Chang Kao-li served as Deputy Prime Minister from 2013 to 2018. He was a member of the Communist Party’s powerful Politburo Standing Committee from 2012 to 2017.
Now thirty-five-year-old Pcheng Shui won the doubles in 2013 at Wimbledon and the 2014 French Open. In 2014, she became the world number one in doubles, with the first Chinese tennis player to reach the top of the list, the Reuters agency wrote.
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