{"id":2605,"date":"2021-11-24T13:05:56","date_gmt":"2021-11-24T13:05:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news25.org\/?p=2605"},"modified":"2021-11-24T13:06:00","modified_gmt":"2021-11-24T13:06:00","slug":"peng-shuai-a-chinese-tennis-player-had-a-video-conversation-with-the-ioc-chairman-but-it-didnt-alleviate-her-safety-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.news25.org\/peng-shuai-a-chinese-tennis-player-had-a-video-conversation-with-the-ioc-chairman-but-it-didnt-alleviate-her-safety-concerns\/","title":{"rendered":"Peng Shuai, a Chinese tennis player, had a video conversation with the IOC chairman, but it didn’t alleviate her safety concerns."},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Hong Kong<\/em> \u2014 Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai has resurfaced after almost 20 days of silence and global concern that she may have been detained.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n But images showing Peng over the weekend don’t appear to have eased fears for her safety that began when she disappeared from public view following an accusation of sexual assault against one of the Chinese Communist Party’s former top leaders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As CBS News correspondent Ramy Inocencio reports, Peng’s first real-time contact with the outside world in almost three weeks came over the weekend in the form of a video call with Thomas Bach, President of the International Olympic Committee. During the 30-minute call, Peng assured Bach that she was “safe and well,” according to the IOC. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The IOC released only a single still image from that video chat, showing Peng smiling, along with a statement that said she was at home in Beijing and wanted her privacy to be respected. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It came after the release over the weekend of a seemingly scripted and stage-managed video of Peng with her tennis coach, with forced references to the date of November 21, that was posted to Twitter by the editor of China’s Global Times tabloid, which is closely allied with the ruling Communist Party. There was also some video of her waving to spectators at the China Open on Sunday morning, and some photos of Peng playing with a cat. <\/p>\n\n\n\n All the new images do appear to show Peng over the weekend, but they have only called more into question whether she has been acting under duress. On November 2, the 35-year-old former Wimbledon and French Open doubles champ, who is also a three-time Olympian, publicly accused former Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli, a close ally of Chinese President Xi Jinping, of sexual coercion about three years ago. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The four-paragraph note posted by Peng’s on Chinese social media platform Weibo was quickly deleted. All references to her name were still being censored online in China through Sunday. An email allegedly sent by Peng to the head of the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA), aired on China’s state media, retracted everything. The author wrote: “The allegation of sexual assault is not true. I’m not missing nor am I unsafe. I’ve just been resting at home and everything is fine.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n