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Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai has denied her own claims of sexual assault and said she never disappeared from public view in a heavily stage-managed interview with foreign media that will only raise further concerns about her safety.
Peng, 36, claimed in a social media post last year that she had been forced into sex by Zhang Gaoli – China’s former vice-premier – sparking an internet crackdown by Beijing censors that also saw her vanish from public view for weeks.
But Peng, sitting down for her first interview outside Chinese state media on Sunday, told French magazine L’Equip that she ‘never said’ she had been sexually assaulted and that she ‘never disappeared’.
Accompanied during the interview by a Chinese Olympic committee official who translated all her comments from Chinese, Peng insisted that her social media post was the subject of an ‘enormous misunderstanding’ by the public.
Peng Shuai was the subject of international concern when she disappeared back in November
Peng (left and right) vanished for several weeks before ‘reappearing’ in social media posts uploaded by Chinese officials or sports authorities
‘Sexual assault? I never said that anyone made me submit to a sexual assault,’ she told the magazine.
‘This post resulted in an enormous misunderstanding from the outside world. My wish is that the meaning of this post no longer be skewed.’
L’Equipe was able to meet with Peng Shuai at the Chinese Olympic Committee hotel in Beijing on Sunday, two days after the Winter Olympics officially got underway.
As a condition of the interview, the magazine said that all questions had to be submitted to Chinese officials in advance.
They were told that Peng, who can speak English, would answer only in Chinese and that an official would be present throughout the interview to translate.
However, L’Equipe was able to supply its own translator to double-check the accuracy of the official’s remarks.
The interview was scheduled to last half an hour…
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Source : dailymail
