WTA announces boycott of China over Peng Shuai issue
FILE – China’s Shuai Peng plays a shot against Romania’s Sorana Cirstea during their first round match of the French Open tennis tournament at the Roland Garros stadium, in Paris, France. Tuesday, May 30, 2017. Chinese authorities have squelched virtually all online discussion of sexual assault accusations apparently made by the Chinese professional tennis star against a former top government official, showing how sensitive the ruling Communist Party is to such charges. (AP Photo/Michel Euler, File)
CHICAGO (NewsNation Now) — The Women’s Tennis Association has announced a boycott of events in China over concerns for the safety of Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai.
Shuai is a Grand Slam doubles champion who accused China’s former vice premier of sexual assault. Shortly after the accusation, Shuai disappeared from public life and concerns began to swirl about her safety. She reappeared after three weeks, and no explanation was offered for her absence.
As “Morning in America” correspondent Paul Gerke put it, the association is “putting morality ahead of a whole lot of money.” The WTA has pulled out of all tournaments in China until it can confirm the health and safety of Shuai.
WTA Chairman and CEO Steve Simon has been rebuffed in numerous attempts to contact Shuai directly, and in fact no one with the association has had any contact with her since she posted the allegations of sexual assault on her social media one month ago. Those posts were quickly removed, and she disappeared.
Her disappearance sparked a social media campaign under #whereisPengShuai which drew millions of posts worldwide. She reappeared in a video message assuring everyone that she was fine. Suspicion is rampant that her statements were coerced and that she is in fact under some sort of duress.
Speaking about the cost to the WTA of the boycott, Simon said, “You can’t change things in this world if you’re not willing to push people to make the right decision.”
The Chinese tournaments in which the WTA is involved bring in hundreds of millions of dollars, and the WTA finals are slated to be played in China for the next decade. The fate of all that is yet to be determined.
The last time a pro sports league ran afoul of the Chinese system was in 2019, when an NBA executive tweeted statements in support of the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong. The tweets were later deleted, and the league apologized, for which it received tremendous blowback from the American public. China suspended broadcast of NBA games for a full year.
