Front Burner - Where — and how — is Peng Shuai?

Episode Date: November 25, 2021

After Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai posted a sexual assault allegation against a former top Communist Party official on social media, the post — and Peng — disappeared. In the weeks that followed, the Women's Tennis Association and the sport's top athletes joined the hashtag #WhereIsPengShuai, including Naomi Osaka, Roger Federer and Serena Williams. Even the UN called for proof of her safety. Now, Chinese state-run broadcasters have tweeted a supposed email along with photos and videos as evidence of her safety. The International Olympic committee says it had an interview with Peng where she reassured them of her wellbeing. Today on Front Burner, Racquet publisher and co-founder Caitlin Thompson explains why China's moves have done little to calm fears for Peng's autonomy, and why this is a crucial moment for sports to re-examine their relationship with China.

In the Dragon's Den, a simple pitch can lead to a life-changing connection. Watch new episodes of Dragon's Den free on CBC Gem. Brought to you in part by National Angel Capital Organization, empowering Canada's entrepreneurs through angel investment and industry connections. This is a CBC Podcast. Hello, I'm Angela Starrett. This video, we're told by Chinese state media, is from a restaurant in Beijing on Saturday. It supposedly shows tennis star Peng Shuai safe, surrounded by her coach and friends.

But Peng isn't saying anything. She's just nodding as others discuss her schedule and repeatedly emphasize what the date is. It's like they're holding up a newspaper to prove the video's recent. This awkward conversation is an answer from China to the question prompting a rethink of global sports. Hashtag where is Peng Shuai? The once number one doubles player disappeared for weeks this month after she accused a former high-ranking Communist Party official of sexual assault.

State media have pictures and video and are pointing to an interview to say she's free, but they certainly aren't acknowledging her allegations. And now an NBA star is saying we need to move this winter's Beijing Olympics while women's tennis is threatening to pull out of the country that hosts its finals. We're at a crossroads with our relationship, obviously, with China and operating our business over there. There's no question about it. Today on FrontBurner, Racket publisher and co-founder Caitlin Thompson is back to discuss Peng and the

cost of sports ignoring China's politics. She worked in Beijing for a couple of years in the early 2000s, writing about culture for the state-run Beijing Review and for China Today. Hi, Caitlin. Hi. Thank you so much for being here. And, you know, I mean, if people have followed doubles tennis from anywhere in the world, they've certainly heard of Peng Shui. But inside China, I mean, just how big of a figure has the country made Peng into? of a figure has the country made Peng into? It's hard to overstate how larger than life athletes from China who make good on the national stage and international stage are regarded internally. And Peng, both because she has been a number one ranked doubles player on the Women's

Tennis Association, and also because she has won Grand Slams in doubles, as well as making some very strong appearances in singles, has been one of the country's main celebrities. There it is. Shui Peng with a famous win, beating the former world number one. I love tennis. I want to be on the court and sweat, fight.

I just want to be happy on the court. She has won the Wimbledon doubles. She's won the French Open doubles. She has been ranked number one in women's doubles in the world. That was back in 2014. And a three-time Olympian. Peng Shuai is extremely famous in China. So Peng is now 35.

She is this massive star. When on November 2nd, a post appears on her social media, and it details how a former Communist Party official invited her to his home three years ago and coerced her into sex. So to start, who is this politician Peng is making these accusations against? This is a man called Zhang Gaoli. He appears to be retired right now, but he appears to have been one of the dozen most powerful men in the country, rising from local leader in the southern part of China where he's from, and then eventually ending up in Beijing, becoming one of the ruling party's most powerful advisors. So my assumption is just because he's

retired doesn't mean he still doesn't enjoy a large modicum of power and probably all the stuff that comes with it, the Audis, the homes near Houhai Lake in Beijing, etc. Based on my reading of who this person is, she could not have poked much more of a powerful bear within the Chinese governmental apparatus. Yeah, and I want to talk more about that post. Peng's apparent post is long. It's difficult to form a timeline of her and Zhang Gaoli's relationship. She talks about having this on and off consensual relationship with him. But then she points to this one time where she didn't agree to sex. And she said, quote, I never gave consent, crying the entire time, end quote.

And Pung was an important figure herself, but what kind of power imbalance do we need to understand this relationship with? When stars, and this has happened in the realm of entertainment, folks in the film and TV industry, singers, when they describe having relationships with senior government officials in an, again, an oppressive political regime where your bank account can be seized, your property is never yours to own. It's yours to lease from the government. The state surveillance is more powerful than your formidable military.

You have basically an environment of powerlessness and coercion and any contact with a senior government official, especially one four decades her senior, is highly questionable and probably not something she would ever opt into had she not been under essentially the thumb of a repressive government. Peng also says she can't prove these allegations because Zhang tried to keep it a secret. But she said, quote, Like an egg hitting a rock or a moth to the flame courting self-destruction. I'll tell the truth about you. And her post disappeared within half an hour of her posting it. What happened with the public discussion around that? Two things.

Internationally, it raised immediate flags because I think most people who know anything about China and its incredibly sophisticated, incredibly authoritarian and oppressive media apparatus would disappear it, which it did. And also within China, not only was the post taken down, any mentions of her name on any social media platform, not only the one she posted, and the entire topic of tennis has been banned. And it's interesting because whenever you have any reports coming from outside of China, they do let some Western media outlets in. Famously, China bans a ton of social media platforms, tech platforms, news sources, et cetera, there's a version of CNN that gets broadcast that's pretty tame. And even then, whenever the topic of Pung or tennis came up, it showed a blank screen. Government censors cutting off CNN's coverage of Peng Shuai's disappearance.

Patrick, it's interesting to point out how there's so much interest in this story. Anytime CNN discusses it in China, TV screens either go to black or they go to color bars. And so they're censoring this in real time and have been basically since the beginning of the month since this happened, which is an indication that they obviously have something to hide. And they know, even though they can control largely what the populace within its boundaries sees, they can't control the perception of the rest of the world. And that's been the most fascinating part of this because when I've seen this in the past, everyone reacts sort of with a shrug

and that's not happening here. In the Dragon's Den, a simple pitch can lead to a life-changing connection. Watch new episodes of Dragon's Den free on CBC Gem. Brought to you in part by National Angel Capital Organization. Empowering Canada's entrepreneurs through angel investment and industry connections. Hi, it's Ramit Sethi here. You may have seen my money show on Netflix. I've been talking about money for 20 years. I've talked to millions of people and I have some startling numbers to share with you. Did you know that of the people I speak to, 50% of them do not know their own household income? That's not a typo. Fifty percent. That's because money is confusing. In my new book and podcast, Money for Couples, I help you and your

partner create a financial vision together. To listen to this podcast, just search for Money for Couples. After Pung makes this post, it's disappeared, and then we don't hear anything from Peng for over two weeks. What's the history that makes someone disappearing like this in China so concerning? We know that they have access and control over every aspect of someone's life. And the way I know this is inference and having lived there. To be clear, I loved living in China. I lived in Beijing for nearly two years. I worked as a journalist there, both for state outlets and international outlets. So I critique it with the eyes of somebody who believes in people's

self-agency, not any sort of a jingoistic or anti-Asian way. And so that context for me is, we have in the past and are now seeing what happens when somebody speaks out. Their social accounts are controlled. In a lot of cases, their physical environs are limited. It's not unrealistic to think that she is at best under house arrest, at worst in the sort of clutches or confines of a government facility. in the sort of clutches or confines of a government facility and that her bank account and everyone in her family is being held essentially for ransom for her to cooperate. I know this for a couple of ways, both explicitly because I've been in the environment, but also because I've read books written by other Chinese athletes who describe elements of this. And from talking to current athletes who represent China, who play on the women's professional tennis tour, who have, in some cases, been keeping second bank accounts in order to ensure their own safety if they ever have to leave. But the problem is a lot of times their ability to move within the world from a passport standpoint

and pay for it and also have their family members safely outside of the reach of the oppressive government are all tools that I think we have every reason to believe the Chinese government is using against Peng Shuai right now. And so what we've seen now after a, well, swift for them and incredibly heartening response from the Women's Tennis Association and other athletes. Because this is horrifying. I i mean a person is missing i mean i don't know if you see what's happening to the recent uh you know attack on a chinese tennis player is just heartbreaking so i believe all those athletes but not just athletes all these countries and people needs to speak up and we would like actually to hear like a video from her or something like a real proof that, yes, that she's all right.

We are really sad about it. And I can name some by name because they really started this conversation and made it undeniably powerful. There's a French tennis player named Alize Cornet, who was the first that many people saw to really ask the question, where is Peng Shuai and what's happening? And then that created a little bit of an avalanche of support and outcry. And the Women's Tennis Association plainly asked, where is she? What's happening? And this was following her silence and the inability of people on the WTA side to get in touch with her. So when first asked about Peng, China's foreign ministry said they knew nothing about the situation. And we don't have Zhang's side of the story because it's not even being talked about in China, right? The government has come out and said that this is

not a diplomatic issue when asked. So what we've heard from them is, again, fairly standard for the way that they tend to respond to any sort of internal dissent, which is to say this is not an issue and basically mind your business. Let's respect Hong Shui as a person, respect her privacy, and let's deal with this as it is. So, Victor, when I was trying to understand how the Chinese Communist Party is handling this situation, when you think of the crisis management, twice you've evaded that question and then put it back onto Peng Shuai and her privacy. So on the 17th, state media, CGTN, goes on Twitter and says they've got an email from Peng to Women's Tennis Association chairman Steve Simon, a reminder that Twitter is banned in China. And CGTN posts a screenshot where Peng supposedly says she didn't consent to WTA's statement about her. She said, quote,

The news in that release, including the allegations of sexual assault, is not true. I'm not missing, nor am I unsafe. An email claiming to be from Pong released by a state-owned broadcaster. The email retracts her allegations, saying, I'm not missing, nor am I unsafe. I've just been resting at home and everything is fine. The man who received the email, the head of the Women's Tennis Association, is not convinced. For us to see an email that basically denied what that happened and said it didn't and that all is great, I'm just struggling to agree to that and don't believe that's the truth at all. So what are some of the red flags you saw in this screenshot?

A few things that immediately everyone jumped on were in the text, which begins with, Hello, everyone, this is Peng Shui. And so obviously this was prepared with the intent that it was going to be blasted for everyone's consumption. In two of the later sentences, she says, I thank you all for your companionship. I hope to promote Chinese tennis with you all. And there was a cursor left in the middle of one of the words that indicates that this was being edited live in real time and not a screenshot of something that was written prior. For me, the main red flag is just how it was obtained, which is Chinese state-affiliated media. And anything that comes from that, I think, heavy skepticism, knowing, and again, I have been part of the Chinese media apparatus, having worked for a Chinese magazine in the early

2000s, you were getting your marching orders from a centralized location. Everyone is getting the same bullet points to hit. And the expectation is that you will kowtow to the party edict. So I think there's no doubt in most people's minds who see this, that this has been concocted and there's very, very little chance that this is the actual communication from Peng Shuai herself. very, very little chance that this is the actual communication from Peng Shuai herself. Hmm. And on Thursday, Steve Simon actually went on CNN to say the WTA is willing to pull out of China if Peng isn't totally accounted for and if her allegations aren't investigated. You know, we have to start as a world making decisions that are based upon right and wrong, period. And we can't compromise that.

And we're definitely willing to pull our business and deal with all the complications that come with it, because this is certainly this is bigger than the business. This weekend, Chinese outlets provided more supposed evidence of Peng's safety. A state TV employee tweeted photos that apparently show her smiling at her home on Saturday. The editor-in-chief of the Global Times tweeted that video from a restaurant where other people repeatedly mentioned the day's date. And the next day, that editor tweeted a video of Peng at the opening of a youth tennis tournament in Beijing. But does any of this calm fears for Peng's safety? Not among anyone who's ever had any dealings with China. I think one of the things that's outrageous is not that China is doing this. This is their playbook. Anybody who's ever dealt with

them knows that propaganda with badly produced, you know, sort of production values is kind of one of the hallmarks of this. And so this was just that, another dissemination of material aimed at turning the tide for more international apathy. And unfortunately, the IOC appears to be willing to shrug its shoulders and move on. I don't think Peng Shuai gets safe unless there's a major, major diplomatic intervention that's only going to happen with sustained pressure from the international community and the business community on China. Right. But on Sunday, the International Olympic Committee said they had a 30-minute video call with Peng. The International Olympic Committee has said its president, Thomas Bach, has held a

video call with the Chinese tennis star Peng Shui, who disappeared earlier this month. It says in a 30-minute video call, she confirmed that she was safe and well. This still image of the conversation was released by the IOC. The video wasn't released, but they posted a photo and said she assured them that she was safe and has asked for privacy. The Athletes Commission chair said Pung looked relaxed. What do you make of the IOC's willingness to take this call at face value and promote that Pung is safe? I think they're not taking it at face value. I think they're complicit. I think they realize that it's a lot harder to have an Olympics boycott the world's most populous nation representing one of its fastest growing economies than it is to do the right thing. I think there is not one person in the International Olympics

Committee who I think with any context could look themselves in the mirror and say that this is okay and what they've seen passes muster. And I should note before the call, before they posted that photo, the IOC defended its silent approach by saying, quote, quiet diplomacy offers the best opportunity to find a solution, end quote. And just to be clear here, do we have any hard evidence that what the IOC says Peng told them is untrue? I mean, isn't it possible that she is safe but wants privacy while she spends time with friends and family? Is that a possibility here? I can't even spend a second contemplating that that's a possibility. No. I think if she were allowed to get out of the country with her own finances and the assurance that her family was safe and then chose to go to an unmarked location and decompress from this whole situation, then maybe. But given what we know about the

incentives involved and the fact that she was brave enough to risk what's happening to her now in the first place, I think there's very, very little with her remaining in China that can counteract what she's already gone on record to say. So I want to speak more broadly about sports in China. It seems like sports have been happy to look the other way for other controversies with China. The country has repeatedly committed human rights violations against minorities like Uyghur Muslims and Tibetans, but the WTA moved its finals there. And in the NBA, I remember LeBron James saying a GM wasn't educated when he tweeted, stand with Hong Kong.

I don't want to get into a feud with Daryl, with Daryl Morey, but I believe he wasn't educated on the situation at hand. James not commenting about any political tension in the region, instead focusing on how Morey's comments damaged the NBA's relationship with the country. So many people could have been harmed, not only financially, but physically, emotionally, spiritually. I mean, up until now, what's been the hope or at least the excuse for global sports to make inroads in China? I mean, I think there's twofold. Number one is obviously economic, which is that this is an incredibly powerful economic engine filled with people. A lot of sports bodies, their first and foremost goal is to remain

financially viable and create new fans. I also think, especially because I lived in China at the beginning of, essentially at the turn of the century, when I think there was a lot of newfound optimism for how opening up was going to transform China, which for many people who probably know this, but might not, basically know, basically, it was a closed off country for decades, following the takeover by Mao Zedong and the Communist Party. And so opening China was seen as this really, really amazing opportunity to make them more like the West, more democratic, more in dialogue with the rest of the world. And, you know, I think our business interests, and I think the fact that the capitalist structures have meant that we've kowtowed to their political agenda and allowed their fat bank accounts to sway us and to steer us off course for what should be

very, very fundamental basic tenants, whether we're talking about business, politics, or international athletic competitions, right? We should never have been in China because they've been committing a genocide against the Uyghurs. Before that, it was the Tibetans. I think anybody who doesn't understand those basic tenets or wants to deny that that's what's happening hasn't been paying any attention. And so I think without a massive conjoined effort on the part of business, on the part of politics and diplomacy, and on the part of basically the way that countries like this get to launder their reputations in the eyes of the international community means that we have a really big opportunity now. Sir, do you support a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Olympics?

Something we're considering. Why does it make sense for tennis and women's tennis in particular to take the lead in sports, holding China accountable for politics? It's a really interesting question. I think had the WTA not been so thoroughly ensconced in Chinese business, which also means Chinese politics, then they wouldn't be in such a position now, both in good and bad ways. In the early 2010s, because of the rise of Chinese athletes, China threw tons of money specifically at women's tennis, probably because their stars had been women. And because tennis remains and has been throughout its existence for the professional tour, the most high profile and the highest dollar sport a woman can play. That's true in the States and it's true everywhere else internationally. And it's why the sport is so popular internationally, because it gets typically the best athletes of most places in the world. That's not so true of men's tennis, just to kind of give you a little context.

Men's tennis competes, especially in the US, with soccer, football, basketball, and other more popular sports. And so I think it's really telling that China, their sports infrastructure, and the people who run it saw a huge opportunity to do a deal here with the Women's Tennis Association, hosting up to nine to 10 events a year. And most famously, the year-end tour finals, which has the largest single tournament prize purse of any competition. And there's no other single country that has as many events as China does on the women's tennis tour. And so it's for that reason that they're uniquely intertwined. And now that a woman's tennis player from China

has gone missing essentially and made, you know, at best troubling appearances, they are in a unique position to have their boycott be meaningful. And I think what we've seen indicated by the Women's Tennis Association is they intend to stand by their words. And, you know, I think it's a really, really powerful opportunity that only really came from having been essentially, you know, in very deep business dealings with the state of China for the past couple of years. Caitlin, thank you so much for this. You're very welcome. Before we let you go today, three men have been convicted in the murder of Ahmaud Arbery. The killing happened last year when Travis McMichael, his father Greg McMichael, and their neighbor William Bryan pursued Arbery in their pickup trucks.

Travis McMichael then got out and after a brief struggle shot Arbery three times. Arbery was unarmed, black and jogging through their neighborhood. The murder of Arbery and the 10 weeks it took for law enforcement to lay charges led to a wave of Black Lives Matter protests in the U.S. The convicted men all faced the possibility of life in prison. That's all for today. I'm Angela Starrett, in for Jamie Poisson. We'll talk to you later. For more CBC Podcasts, go to cbc.ca slash podcasts.