Chinese tennis star missing

[HanSenSE]

China's Peng Shuai makes social media post saying she was sexually abused. Post then taken down (but noting ever dies on the Internet, right?) and hasn't been seen since.

China says 'not aware' of tennis player Peng Shuai issue

 

[The Big Ragu]

Not just sexually abused. She said she was sexually assaulted and forced to have sex with a Communist Party official, who was Vice Premier at the time.

 

[TrooperBari]

Not much surprises me these days, but I am genuinely surprised at how hard the WTA and the wider tennis community are going at the Chinese government over Peng Shuai. It's remarkable given how quickly and meekly other, larger organizations have been willing to debase themselves to secure access to Chinese consumers -- not to mention the fact that China generates as much as a third of the WTA's revenue. None of this is likely to change Beijing's behavior in the long run, but it is definitely making some suits in Zhongnanhai squirm at a time when China is shouting about not politicizing sports and wanting to use the Winter Olympics as a vehicle for celebrating the country's glorious triumph over Covid-19.




One thing that doesn't surprise me, though, is Chinese propagandists' ham-fisted response. The censoring of "sensitive topics" is par for the course, but producing what is supposed to be an email from Peng claiming that everything is fine and please stop looking for her is next-level stuff. It was hard to tell whether they were flailing in response and put out something that substandard or that the powers that be cared so little about international reaction that they only had to put in the bare minimum of effort. Probably both.

 

[Azrael]

Kudos to the WTA. And courageous individuals like Naomi Osaka.

It would be great if we could line up Nike and the NBA and Apple and a thousand other global conglomerates against this kind of repression.

But money talks - and disappearing troublemakers has long been second nature to this government. In the age of social media, it's become more blatant. Jack Ma, Zhao Wei, Yang Maodong, et al.

Hope she's OK.

 

[Hermes]

Guess all that McDonald's and KFC-based diplomacy and turning over all our production to them in the 1990's didn't change hearts and minds, did it?

We got a bunch of plastic crap from Wal-Mart and Dollar Tree sitting in our nation's collective basement to show for it, though.

 

[Mngwa]

So, if she doesn't resurface in a way that shows she's free .....boycott the Olympics?

 

[Spartan Squad]

So, if she doesn't resurface in a way that shows she's free .....boycott the Olympics?

In a perfect world? Yes.

But

Because tennis isn't competing, the players won't be holding the spotlight and possibly lead the boycott. heck, the lack of women's soccer in the Olympics means the US women won't be putting pressure to sit it out. Watch for subtle protests but the winter athletes won't sit this one out, with maybe a couple of exceptions.

Honestly, why we give China these big spotlight events and how so many sports leagues kowtow to China given its human rights abuses is sad. It's where we are.

 

[Azrael]

Sally wrote a thing:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/olympics/2021/11/18/peng-shuai-wta-china-olympic-boycott/

 

[LanceyHoward]

In a perfect world? Yes.

Honestly, why we give China these big spotlight events and how so many sports leagues kowtow to China given its human rights abuses is sad. It's where we are.

I have been to Beijing. The city is a long ay from wherever thee ski competitions are and there is not enough snow. But in China government spending is not subject to the appropriations process of a democracy.

I am trying to remember who else was bidding on the Winter Olympics. There are not many places with the topography, climate and willingness and ability to spend money on things like toboggan runs. The Chinese government, on the other hand, likess these events and will provide enough one-stop funding to make this happen.

And I think the record of corruption in the IOC is sufficient that I can say this without sounding like a conspiracy nut. Every dollar that the Chinese provide is one less dollar the IOC has to give to the host country from television rights, etc. for facilities and one more dollar the IOC members can plunder.

 

[Spartan Squad]

I am trying to remember who else was bidding on the Winter Olympics. There are not many places with the topography, climate and willingness and ability to spend money on things like toboggan runs. The Chinese government, on the other hand, likess these events and will provide enough one-stop funding to make this happen.

The two cities were Beijing and one in Kazakhstan. Beijing had the money and willingness to spend. Kazakhstan has mountains and snow. They seemed willing the spend, but it probably would have gone to ruin shortly there after.

 

[Neutral Corner]

Kazakhstan is a very oil rich country, too. I think that even the IOC's legendary greed wasn't going to be enough to cover their record on human rights abuses, though.

 

[Azrael]

I'm always surprised by cities that should know better going back for another bite of the Olympic apple. Paris? Los Angeles? C'mon man. Why bother?

That said, I will post again my quadrennial recommendation to site the summer Olympics permanently in Athens. Winter in Lake Placid or Nagano.

Or find a ski resort in the Southern Hemisphere - Chile or New Zealand, etc. - and fix the location there.

It would do away with all the bidding and construction graft.

Which is why it will never happen.