Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai is speaking out again about the sexual assault accusation she made against a high-profile government official — but now, she’ s saying she never actually delivered the allegation at all.
The women’ s professional tennis star opened up in a new video statement published on Sunday, claiming that she never accused anyone of sexually assaulting her, and that the firestorm last month over her quickly-deleted social media post about the allegations was merely a misunderstanding.
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Speaking in a video posted by Lianhe Zaobao , a Singapore-based media outlet, the particular professional athlete opened up about the weeks-long controversy regarding her alleged rape by a Chinese government official and her whereabouts after the initial allegations. The video reveal took place while Peng made a public appearance on typically the sidelines of a cross-country skiing event in Shanghai over this weekend.
Calling often the initial accusatory post she produced on the Chinese social press network Weibo a “ private matter, ” the 35-year-old international tennis star explained that “ people have many misunderstandings” regarding her claim.
Backtracking on your allegations she’ d initially levied against former Chinese vice premier Zhang Gaoli , Peng said in the video clip:
“ First, I need to stress one point that is extremely important, I have in no way said or written that anyone has sexually assaulted me, I have to clearly stress this point. ”
Wow.
That would seem to be in direct contradiction to Peng’ s literal words in that initial Weibo post. Back on November 2, the exact tennis sensation published a 1, 600-word post accusing Zhang Gaoli of coercing her into having sex, with one damaging line specifically alleging:
“ Why did you come back and seek me out, take me to your home, and force me to have sex with you. ”
The post was quickly removed from the social network, though not before it went viral, attracting considerable worldwide attention. Her account currently remains “ under restrictions, ” according to Reuters, along with not a single post displaying that’ s been made more recently than early September.
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Obviously, those concerned for Peng’ s well-being are still skeptical. The Women’ s Tennis Association , which earlier this month decided to suspend its tournaments in China due to concerns over the very treatment of Peng and other players, called for an investigation:
“ It was again good to see Peng Shuai in a public setting and we certainly hope she is doing well. As we possess consistently stated, these appearances do not alleviate or address a WTA’s significant concerns about the girl well-being and ability to communicate without censorship or coercion. We remain steadfast in our call for a full, fair plus transparent investigation, without censorship, into her allegation of sexual attack, which is the issue that will gave rise to our initial concern. ”
And users on Twitter , where Peng’ s name went viral after the video reveal, revealed that they too are skeptical of this whole situation:
“ Literally nobody believes this. Nobody. ”
“ Oh they definitely got her. So sad to see it happen within real time. ”
“ So, the Chinese authorities got to her… She went into hiding for nothing? Terrible. I feel bad for her. ”
“ I’ m sad for her and everyone suffering under this regime”
“ To me this seems like the CCP put the woman under so much pressure, she had to come out and ‘ make it right’ publicly. ”
“ This breaks my heart. I hope she’s ok. ”
“ Does China think there is a single person globally who doesn’ t suspect they realized they couldn’ t silently take care of your ex so they released her together with a threat? ”
It’ s definitely very unsettling, to say the least…
[Image via Oscar Gonzalez/ WENN ]
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