Image source,Getty Images
Peng Shuai (left) did not appear publicly after posting an exposure.
Since Peng Shuai, a Chinese female professional tennis player, said on Weibo that he had had sex with Zhang Gaoli, a retired member of the Politburo Standing Committee and Vice Premier of China, public opinion has been in an uproar. The article published by Peng Shuai has been deleted, and her whereabouts are unknown.
Peng Shuai’s agent and relevant Chinese government departments have not commented on the incident so far, and the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs has also refused to respond to relevant questions at a regular press conference. Searches and discussions about Peng Shuai, tennis, and Zhang Gaoli on the Internet in China have been censored, but many netizens continue to express their opinions in the form of hints or hotly discuss through VPNs.
Since this incident is believed to be the highest-profile report known since the international #MeToo movement that encourages the exposure of sexual assaults was introduced to China, and the incident occurred just before the Sixth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, there are many observations. And analysts have all thought that this matter may be related to the fight for power.
Some scholars and activists concerned about the MeToo movement in China told the BBC Chinese that, judging from the expressions in Peng Shuai’s blog, they tend to believe Peng Shuai’s allegations and believe that this is an incident that occurred under an extremely unbalanced power between men and women. The person involved is in an emotionally unstable state, and his personal safety is worrying after the incident was exposed. At the same time, observers are still arguing whether this incident is a peachy dispute or a sexual assault.
What happened before and after Peng Shuai’s article was published
At 22:07 (14:07 GMT) on November 2nd, Beijing time, Peng Shuai’s verified Weibo account published a long article, in which it said: “About three years ago, Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli, you retired, and you are looking for Tianjin Tennis. Doctor Liu from the center contacted me again… After playing in the morning, you and your wife Kang Jie took me to your house. Then you took me into your room, just like when I was in Tianjin more than ten years ago. I had sex. I was very scared that afternoon. I didn’t expect it to be like this. I was guarding by myself, because no one could believe that my wife would be willing.”
The post also said, “We had a one-time relationship seven years ago, and then you were promoted to the Standing Committee and never contacted me again when you went to Beijing.” She also said that she knew she had no evidence to prove the other party.
Image source,Getty Images
Zhang Gaoli served as Vice Premier of the State Council from 2013 to 2018
Born in November 1946, Zhang Gaoli is a native of Jinjiang, Fujian. He was elected as a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party Central Committee at the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China) in November 2012. At the meeting of the Chinese National People’s Congress in March of the following year Elected Vice Premier of the State Council. Prior to this, Zhang Gaoli had served as secretary of the Tianjin Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China in 2007. Before being dispatched to Tianjin, she had served in Guangdong for a long time.
Peng Shuai was born in 1986 in Xiangtan, Hunan. He has lived in Tianjin for many years. In 2014, he was ranked No. 1 in women’s tennis for the first time and was the first Chinese player to achieve this achievement. She has long cooperated with Taiwanese player Xie Shuwei to participate in the women’s doubles competition, and won the two major Opens in Wimbledon and France in 2013 and 2014.
This post is reported to have been deleted about 20 minutes after being published on Weibo, but the screenshot of this blog post quickly “spread” on WeChat and even social media platforms outside of China. In recent years, Lu Qiu Luwei, deputy head of the Department of Journalism of the School of Communication and Film and Television of Hong Kong Baptist University, who specializes in the development of social media in China and the MeToo movement, confirmed this time period.
Dr. Luqiu Luwei said to the BBC Chinese: “If you read the comments for the first time, those comments that have not been deleted at the time, everyone is very simple and empathetic, knowing how many things are not easy in this society. She can do this Standing up, everyone actually admired her and thought she was brave.”
BBC Chinese cannot independently verify the content of online posts. Reuters reported that the sports public relations firm APG representing Peng Shuai, Sina Weibo and WeChat operator Tencent did not respond to their reporter’s invitation for comment.
At a regular press conference of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China on November 3, a reporter asked about this matter. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin replied: “I have not heard of it. This is not a diplomatic issue either. Next question.”
Image source,BBC News Chinese
Peng Shuai’s Weibo only left the birthday greetings at the beginning of the year.
Many netizens on Twitter reported that Peng Shuai, Zhang Gaoli and many homophones were blocked on Weibo, and WeChat users reported that they could not send screenshots to each other. The 2013 Korean TV series “The Prime Minister and I” on the film and television website Douban was removed from the shelves. The original page displayed the phrase “You do not have permission to access this page”, which is also suspected to be related to this incident.
Peng Shuai’s Weibo account itself was still able to log in on November 4th. The latest post above was a dynamic post generated by the system to celebrate his 35th birthday on January 8, but more than 1,600 comments in it were unreadable. Searching for Peng Shuai or Zhang Gaoli on Weibo will find incomplete feedback. From the free Weibo website that specializes in collecting blocked online posts, the hot search terms “Peng Shuai”, “gua”, and “tennis” have all been censored and deleted.
At the same time, Hong Kong-listed companies Xinyi Solar, Xinyi Energy, and Xinyi Power Storage all fell significantly on the 4th. Li Xianyi, the proprietor of the Xinyi Group, is Zhang Gaoli’s in-laws. The Hong Kong media believes that the sharp drop in Xinyi Group’s stock price is related to Peng Shuai’s allegations.
What interpretations did Peng Shuai’s post draw?
The Sixth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China will be held on November 8. Many Hong Kong, Taiwan and overseas media reports and analyses link the Peng Shuai incident to the CCP’s personnel struggle; some refer to “Zhang Gaoli is a cronies of former General Secretary Jiang Zemin” . Wang Dan, the leader of the Tiananmen Square student movement in exile in the United States in 1989, said on Facebook: “Two points are more intriguing: 1. It takes great courage and confidence to report the former Politburo Standing Committee member by real name. Who gave Peng Shuai such courage? 2. It was a coincidence that this scandal broke out on the eve of the Sixth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.”
Image source,@wangdan1989/Facebook
Retired professor of the Central Party School of the Communist Party of China in the United StatesCai XiaHe also commented: “Such matters are common among mainland officials, and no one will say who. When infighting is the bullet that hits the opponent, Zhang Gaoli’s explosion of melons shows that the high-level internal fighting of the Chinese Communist Party has heated up.”
Image source,@realcaixia/Twitter
In addition, the Central Disciplinary Inspection Commission of the Communist Party of China and the National Supervision Commission of China published on the official website of the article “Tianjin notified 8 typical cases of violating the eight central regulations of the central government”, which exposed many officials suspected of violating Party discipline and embezzlement. Zhang Gaoli once had intersections and became another speculation direction of the media.
However, some observers believe that the core of the problem is sexual assault. Teng Biao, a former Chinese human rights lawyer living in the United States, is one of them.
Dr. Lu Qiu Luwei of Hong Kong Baptist University, who has been interviewing China’s current affairs news for a long time, is not surprised by the media’s analysis of Peng Shuai’s allegations in the direction of power struggle, but she believes that this is a lack of understanding of the matter from the perspective of the victim and lack of empathy.
Luqiu Luwei told the BBC Chinese reporter: “As a client, when she is wronged, she will not think so much. It must be from her own perspective… For her (Peng Shuai), Weibo may be the only one she can Tools used.”
“I am not her, and there is no way to guess, but I have studied the verbal analysis of more than 1,000 sexual harassment parties, and I feel that her entire description is consistent with MeToo’s narrative. You can see that there is a lot of hesitation, resistance, and confusion. When the power difference between a woman and a man is far, far away, you can basically see this mental state, but you don’t know how to deal with it.”
Lv Pin, a Chinese feminist activist living in the United States, also told BBC Chinese that the current political environment in China is “tensed every day.” Even from a political point of view, there is little difference in when to post Peng Shuai’s post. Lu Pin also said: “If you read Peng Shuai’s post, you will know that she has her own track in posting this post.”
“She was emotionally broken and her psychology was hit hard. She realized that this was an abusive relationship. She had great emotional and psychological needs to post such a post. It was not the result of careful consideration. It’s not that I want to bring someone down based on a specific time.”
Lv Pin also published an article on Twitter, saying: “Peng Shuai’s narrative is highly consistent with the releases of many other Mi Rabbit victims. Using his meager power to break through a society as a whole set of unspeakable and normal sexual violence Transformation is very difficult. I understand why Peng Shuai blames himself, why he would say that he is a good person, when it comes to love, etc.”
“I feel more completely the humiliation and anger in her heart. Society must understand that no one should be put in such a state, and women have always known.”
Is the MeToo movement still struggling in China?
Image source,Getty Images
Originating from Hollywood in the United States, the #MeToo movement that swept China in 2018 has evoked extensive discussions on the basic rights of women in China.
Among the many comments on Peng Shuai’s posts, Zhou Xiaoxuan’s comments have attracted particular attention. Zhou Xiaoxuan, who goes by the online name Xuanzi, was an intern at the official China Central Television. She accused the host Zhu Jun of sexual harassment in 2014. The case will start in September 2021. The court of first instance ruled Zhu Jun on the grounds of “insufficient evidence”. Not guilty.
According to reports, Zhou Xiaoxuan posted a message saying “I hope she is safe” and that Peng Shuai came out to expose the incident, indicating that the MeToo movement will not stop in China.
Lv Pin told BBC Chinese that Peng Shuai’s current personal safety “is the biggest concern of Chinese feminists, because we all know that she is taking a huge risk in posting this post.”
Luqiu Luwei lamented that from the perspective of information dissemination, once the information is released, no matter how wronged the sender feels, different people in society will naturally have different interpretations. Therefore, it is difficult to avoid some people questioning the timing and proposing conspiracy theories. However, some public opinion has noticed that the Peng Shuai incident reflects how difficult Chinese women are in a patriarchal society.
“Although you are very famous and a very accomplished woman, you have to face such a situation.”
Lu Pin believes that China is still not paying enough attention to the MeToo anti-sexual assault movement, and there is still a long way to go for significant changes in social distance.
“I think the mainstream concept in Chinese society is still not sufficiently aware of women’s rights. What MeToo does is to prevent society from denying that this is a controversial issue. Before MeToo, this mainstream society pretended to be a female issue. It doesn’t exist. That’s because women’s voices are not loud enough, so this society can ignore them as much as possible.”
“As for when this mainstream social concept will undergo a significant change, I think this still needs a process.”