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pictures of Peng Shuai on the internet sow confusion

By Sudouest.fr with AFP

Three videos and photos showing a smiling Peng Shuai were released on Saturday, as international pressure grows on China for information on the Chinese player’s fate.

Tennis champion Peng Shuai, 35, former world number 1 in doubles and star in her country, has not come out publicly since accusing Zhang Gaoli, a powerful 40-year-old ex-Communist Party official her eldest, for having forced her to have sex.

In that initial message, briefly posted in early November on the player’s official Weibo account before being censored on the Chinese internet, an upset sentimental relationship with married Mr. Zhang was described before he rose to high ground. functions. A “forced” sexual intercourse was mentioned.

Since these affirmations, the fate of Peng Shuai is the subject of many questions since the champion has not given a sign of life. Until this Saturday.

Media close to power

In one of three videos posted on Twitter by Hu Xijin, influential editor-in-chief of Global Times, a Chinese daily with a decidedly nationalist tone, the 35-year-old player appears standing in a stadium, for “the opening ceremony of the final of a teenage tennis match ”. She is seen in the middle of a group of guests whose names are announced to the applauding audience. However, there are very few spectators in the stands.

Mr. Hu, who claims a certain proximity to power, also posted two videos in the evening of the player “having dinner with her coach and friends in a restaurant” in Beijing and filmed the same day, according to him.

Confusion over dates

AFP was unable to confirm the location or the conditions in which the footage was shot. And Hu Xijin made no reference to it on his Weibo account in Chinese.

In the images, Peng Shuai is surrounded by two women with whom she shares a meal and wine in a noisy place. A man is seated opposite the player and the conversation is about “matches”. “Tomorrow is November 20” (Saturday), he said, before being interrupted by one of the guests: “It is November 21” (tomorrow Sunday).

The WTA still concerned

WTA President Steve Simon found it “positive” to see the athlete, but “video alone is not enough” to show that she is “free in her decisions and actions,” he said. he felt, still “concerned about the health and safety of Peng Shuai”.

The UN has also asked for proof that she is doing well, and several countries, including the United States and France, have expressed “concern”, as the hashtag #WhereisPengShuai (# WhereestPengShuai) has spread as wildfire on social networks.

Four allegedly recent snapshots of the tennis champion were subsequently published by the Twitter account @ shen_shiwei, labeled “media affiliated with the Chinese state” by the social network.

The Peng Shuai affair is censored in China and the player’s entourage declined to comment.

Former Deputy Prime Minister Zhang Gaoli, who was one of China’s seven most powerful politicians from 2013 to 2018, has never publicly reacted to the accusations.

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