Representatives of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) agreed to meet with Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai, who largely disappeared from public after making sexual abuse accusations against ex-Chinese vice-premier at the Winter Olympic Games in Beijing, IOC President Thomas Bach said on Thursday
BEIJING (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 03rd February, 2022) Representatives of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) agreed to meet with Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai, who largely disappeared from public after making sexual abuse accusations against ex-Chinese vice-premier at the Winter Olympic Games in Beijing, IOC President Thomas Bach said on Thursday.
Bach said that the meeting was initiated by Peng herself. He also noted that the event will take place in a closed-loop system, an area created to separate those linked to the Olympic Games from the Chinese population over pandemic concerns.
In addition, Bach stressed that the IOC had remained silent on the issue for a long time since it needed to get in contact with Peng first, determine her location and condition. He also expressed representatives' desire to understand Peng's vision of the situation and further developments. Bach assured that the IOC would support the Chinese tennis star irrespective of her decision.
The tennis player disappeared from public after publishing on November 2, 2021, a statement on Weibo, China's Twitter-like social media platform, accusing the former Chinese vice-premier, 75-year-old Zhang Gaoli, of sexually assaulting her. The post was immediately deleted, Peng's accounts were removed from Chinese social networks and the athlete stopped communicating, raising concerns for her safety.
On November 21, 2021, the tennis star finally appeared in public for the first time in several weeks at the opening ceremony of a teenage tennis match final in Beijing. The next day, Peng confirmed she was safe and well in a video call with Bach.
In December, 2021, Peng said that she had never accused anyone of sexual assault. When talking about the sexual assault accusations, which she deleted from her account on Weibo, she said it was her "personal business," noting that there was a misunderstanding.
