“SHOCKING” Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai accuses former top Communist Party leader of sexual assault

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Chinese authorities are often called out for pushing important matters under the rug which actually should be out in the open. This time around, a tennis player has been silenced after she made some serious allegations against a prominent leader of the Chinese Communist Party.

The tennis star we are talking about is Peng Shuai. The Chinese tennis star was ranked world No. 1 doubles by the WTA back in 2014. In fact, she was the first Chinese tennis player to achieve this feat. In August 2011, she peaked at No. 14 of the singles rankings as well.

“Never thought this could happen”: Peng Shuai

In singles, the Chinese tennis star reached the semifinals of the 2014 US Open but wasn’t able to progress beyond the third round at any major since Wimbledon in 2017. Moreover, Peng has been away from the court for some time now and hasn’t played at the top tier since the Qatar Open in February 2020.

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She recently made the headlines after writing a lengthy social media post that disappeared very quickly. In the post, Peng Shuai wrote that Zhang Gaoli, a former vice-premier and member of the Communist party’s Politburo Standing Committee, had forced her to have sex three years ago.

The Associated Press, which reported the incident, could not verify the authenticity of her post, which was made by Peng’s verified account on Weibo, a leading Chinese social media platform. The post was removed in a whisker, and a search on Weibo for Peng’s account is now turning up no results.

In the post, Peng wrote that Zhang and his wife arranged to play tennis in Beijing about three years ago and that he later brought her into a room at his home where she was assaulted. “I was so frightened that afternoon, never thinking that this thing could happen,” the post says. Since the news broke, many people have come out in Peng’s support and are actually worried about her safety.

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