Peng Shuai denies sexual assault allegations for the second time
CHINESE tennis player Peng Shuai has denied that she had accused Communist Party former vice-premier Zhang Gaoli of sexual assaults which previously sparked an international concern about her safety after she disappeared briefly from the public.
Peng told L'Equipe that the concerns were the result of “an enormous misunderstanding” as she delivered her interview in front of a Chinese Olympic official in a format that appeared to limit follow-ups about the allegations and their aftermath.
L'Equipe said it submitted questions in advance, a precondition for the interview, but also got to ask others that were unplanned.
In November of last year, Peng posted that Zhang Gaoli had forced her to have sex despite repeated refusals and mentioned that they had sex once seven years ago, after which she disappeared from the public for almost three weeks.
“I never said anyone had sexually assaulted me in any way," Peng told L'Equipe and added that she was the one who deleted her allegation from Weibo, China's Twitter-like platform.
When asked why she deleted her original post, Peng said that everything was a huge misunderstanding.
“I don’t want the meaning of this post to be twisted anymore. And I don’t want any further media hype around it” she said.
Peng also claims that she "never disappeared" from the public eye and that so many people tried to reach out that "it was simply impossible to answer so many messages."
The 36-year-old tennis star, however, appreciates the concern shown for her and thanked everyone for caring about her wellbeing, but also questioned why it had been “exaggerated” as she didn’t think there would be such concern.
However, International Olympic Committee Director of Communications Mark Adams said it was not up to the governing body to pass judgment on Peng Shuai's sexual assault accusation.
"We as a sports organization are doing everything to ensure that she is happy and I don't think it is up to us to be able to judge in one way, just as it's not for you to judge either in one way or another, her position," Adams continued.
Tags: tennis, china, sports