Australian Open SPONSORED by the CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY, caught confiscating ‘Peng Shuai’ T-shirt
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Chinese Communist Party and Australian Open
Australian Open 2022 hasn’t been shy of controversies even before it began. Just when the whole Novak Djokovic controversy was coming to an end, the first major of the year was struck by another controversy over Peng Shuai.
A couple of fans’ T-shirts showing support to Peng Shuai were confiscated by the Security at the Australian Open which led to widespread criticism of the Australian Open authorities. Although Tennis Australia backed the decision and said that the T-shirt contained a political statement which is prohibited inside the arena. It should be noted that Australian Open’s major commercial partner is the Chinese premium liquor brand Guojiao 1573.
However, the statement led to speculation about the decision of confiscating the T-shirt. The T-shirt was intended to raise awareness about a tennis player whose whereabouts were unknown for three months after she made a sexual assault allegation on social media against Zhang Gaoli, the former vice-premier of China.
Australian Open CATERS to the SPONSORS
Peng Shuai posted a sexual assault allegation against the former Vice-premier of China Zhang Gaoli and a member of the ruling Chinese Communist Party. The post was deleted from the social media handle within 30 minutes and Peng disappeared for nearly 3 months after that. There was global concern around the disappearance of the former Wimbledon doubles’ winner and a former world No.1.
Shuai came back, but ever since that incident, she has declined the allegation of sexual assault. The former world No.1 is yet to make a comeback to top-level tennis. WTA has put his foot down on this issue and has decided not to conduct any tennis events in China in 2022. The WTA chairman and chief executive Steve Simon were very clear in his statement when he said: “principles ahead of profit”.
However, for Tennis Australia, this seems to be going the other way round. For them, Profit is ahead of principles. Tennis Australia announced one of the largest sponsorship deals in the Australian Open’s history in 2018, when it signed Chinese Baijiu distillery Luzhou Laojiao as a five-year associate sponsor. Tennis Australia also negotiated a five-year commercial arrangement with Chinese water supplier Ganten in the same year.
Unlike WTA, Tennis Australia hasn’t issued any statements showing support to Peng. They have gone in the other way and started to confiscate people’s T-shirts for showing support to the player. After the T-shirt incident, they did issue a statement mentioning Peng, but they haven’t taken a firm position on the whole issue.
As Nick Kyrgios said in one of his interviews, “Something is obviously not right there. We need more awareness about it. We can’t forget about her. We have to use our platforms as athletes. I think we’re obligated to do that, we’re obligated to speak up and get to the root of what’s happening and why it’s happening.”
Tennis Australia, on the other hand, has failed to raise any awareness around the topic and on the contrary, has gone ahead to SHUT all the awareness that the fans are trying to raise. Tennis Australia is obligated but to the Chinese companies that are sponsoring the Australian Open.
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