China rejects ‘malicious hypothesis’ over Peng, IOC backlash grows

Beijing (dpa), 23 Nov, 2021-  China’s government has called for the end of speculation surrounding tennis star Peng Shuai, who made sexual assault allegations against a former vice premier and was then not seen for two weeks.

Peng held a video call with International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach on Sunday and said she was safe at home in Beijing.

“Some people should stop their malicious hypothesis and should not politicize this issue... I took the question many times in the past few days,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told reporters on Tuesday.

“This is not a diplomatic issue. And I believe you may have noticed that Peng Shuai attended some open activities. She also had a video call with the IOC president.”

Peng, 35, had posted her allegations against Zhang Gaoli on the Weibo social network in early November. Immediately, censors intervened, deleted her post and have since prevented any discussion of the issue on the internet in China.