Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai has insisted she deleted a social media post appearing to suggest a Chinese official had “forced relations” with her.
Her disappearance, shortly after the post, sparked worldwide concern but, in an interview with French newspaper L’Equipe at a hotel in Beijing, Peng repeated denials she had ever made such allegations.
“In the text we could see in Europe, you accused someone of sexual assault. What did you really write? We don’t understand,” asked the paper.
“Sexual assault? I never said anyone had sexually assaulted me in any way,” said Peng, without elaborating.
In her now-deleted post on China’s Weibo, Peng had written “why did you take me to your house and force me into having relations with you?” though she also described the relationship with Zhang as an on-off one that was also consensual.
Peng told the French paper her social media post had caused a “huge misunderstanding”, repeating comments reported by a Singapore media outlet in December, and that she did not want “any further media hype” about it.
“I’d like to say that feelings, sports and politics are three very distinct things. My lovelife problems, my personal life must not be mingled with sports and politics,” she said via a translator.
“Sports must not be politicised because when that happens, most of the time it means turning one’s back on the Olympic spirit and it goes against the will of the sporting world and the athletes.”
It came after she said the post was “a private matter” and that “people have many misunderstandings” about it.
She said: “I need to stress one point that is extremely important, I have never said or written that anyone has sexually assaulted me, I have to clearly stress this point.”
“It was again good to see Peng Shuai in a public setting and we certainly hope she is doing well,” the WTA said in a statement after the December interview.
“As we have consistently stated, these appearances do not alleviate or address the WTA’s significant concerns about her wellbeing and ability to communicate without censorship or coercion.”
