WTA Suspends All Tournaments In China, HK Over Peng Shuai Case

The Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) has suspended all tournaments in China, including Hong Kong, after its chairman Steve Simon said he had still not been able to communicate freely with Peng Shuai.

Photo Insert: WTA President Steve Simon

Peng, 35, a former tennis doubles champion, alleged in an internet post on Nov. 2 that former Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli had sexually abused her. Her post was deleted from the internet in 30 minutes.

This is by far the biggest move ever taken by a sporting institution—indeed, by any large private body—against China, and it stands in stark contrast to the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) insistence that Peng is fine after IOC member Dick Pound spoke with her (and Chinese officials) on a group call.

It’s likely to cause a serious long-term rift between China and the WTA as well as leading to pressure on Chinese tennis players to not participate in any WTA events. It may also lead to bans on screening tennis on Chinese television. China will be very determined to ensure no other sporting body shows the same solidarity and courage the WTA has displayed.

Beijing reacted to WTA’s action and said politics should be kept out of sports. Foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told South China Morning Post (SCMP) “we’ve already expressed our view. We’ve always been against behaviors (sic) politicizing sports.”

Peng’s story is part of a pattern of widespread sexual abuse within Chinese sports and other national institutions, such as the military entertainment system.

The country has not seen anything like the reckoning other nations have had with institutional abuse in the last two decades as it is unable to do so in a heavily censored media environment, James Palmer reported for Foreign Policy.

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