Peng Shuai, the Chinese tennis star whose account of sexual coercion by a former Communist Party chief ignited weeks of tensions and galvanized requires boycotts of the Winter Olympics in Beijing, has reversed her assertion that she had been sexually assaulted by the official.
Ms. Peng made the feedback in an interview that was printed on Sunday by a Singaporean newspaper. But the retraction appeared unlikely to extinguish considerations about her well-being and suspicions that she had been the goal of well-honed stress methods and a propaganda marketing campaign by Chinese officers.
The controversy erupted final month when Ms. Peng wrote in a put up on Weibo, a Chinese social media platform, that she had maintained a yearslong, on-and-off relationship with the retired Chinese vice premier Zhang Gaoli, now 75. She mentioned that in an encounter with him about three years in the past, she had “never consented” and that she was “crying all the time.”
She then abruptly dropped from public view, and world concern for her whereabouts grew. In a written assertion later, she appeared to hunt to tug again the accusation, and the Women’s Tennis Association and different skilled gamers rallied to her facet, saying they believed that her assertion had been written beneath official duress.
The tennis affiliation suspended enjoying matches in China whereas searching for to ascertain unbiased contact with Ms. Peng. Last week, the leaders of the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee criticized China’s dealing with of Ms. Peng’s case.
In the interview with Lianhe Zaobao, a Chinese-language Singaporean newspaper, Ms. Peng, 35, mentioned, “First, I want to stress a very important point — I never said or wrote that anyone sexually assaulted me.”
“There may have been misunderstandings by everyone,” she mentioned of her preliminary put up on Weibo.
Ms. Peng additionally denied that she had been beneath home arrest or that she had been compelled to make any statements in opposition to her will.
“Why would someone keep watch over me?” she mentioned. “I’ve been very free all along.”
Her denial drew skepticism from human rights advocates, who’ve mentioned that Chinese officers seem to have corralled her into rehearsed video appearances.
Kenneth Roth, the manager director of Human Rights Watch, mentioned on Twitter that Ms. Peng’s newest assertion was “only deepening concerns about the pressure to which the Chinese government is subjecting her.”
Last month, video clips of her at a Beijing restaurant had been posted on the Twitter account of the chief editor of The Global Times, an influential newspaper run by the Communist Party. The editor described them as displaying Ms. Peng having dinner along with her coach and mates. She additionally appeared in dwell video calls with the president of the International Olympic Committee and different officers with the group.
The Chinese authorities are more likely to seize on Ms. Peng’s newest assertion, recorded on video, to push again in opposition to requires a full investigation of her claims and to oppose the tennis affiliation’s suspension of matches in China.
The minutes-long interview with Ms. Peng, which happened at a snowboarding competitors in Shanghai, left many key questions unasked and unanswered.
Understand the Disappearance of Peng Shuai
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Where is Peng Shuai? The Chinese tennis star disappeared from public view for weeks after she accused a high Chinese chief of sexual assault. Recent movies that seem to point out Ms. Peng have completed little to resolve considerations for her security.
Who is Peng Shuai? Ms. Peng, 35, is a three-time Olympian whose profession started greater than twenty years in the past. In 2014, she rose to turn out to be ranked No. 1 in doubles on the earth, the primary Chinese participant, male or feminine, to realize the highest rank in both singles or doubles tennis.
Why did she disappear? On Nov. 2, Ms. Peng posted a protracted observe on the Chinese social platform Weibo that accused Zhang Gaoli, 75, a former vice premier, of sexual assault. Within minutes, censors scrubbed her account and a digital blackout on her accusations has been in place ever since.
How has the world responded? The censors might need succeeded had Steve Simon, the pinnacle of the Women’s Tennis Association, not spoken out on Nov. 14. Ms. Peng’s accusations have drawn the eye of fellow athletes, the White House and the United Nations.
She was not requested straight about her relationship with Mr. Zhang, who was a member of the Politburo Standing Committee, the Communist Party’s highest physique. Nor was she requested how her understanding of sexual assault squared along with her earlier description of what had occurred with Mr. Zhang.
Ms. Peng has been one in every of China’s highest-ranked tennis gamers, reaching No. 1 in doubles in 2014 and as excessive as 14th as a singles participant. Her Weibo account in early November of her relationship with Mr. Zhang lasted for all of 20 minutes earlier than Chinese censors erased it. But the information shortly unfold on-line.
Since then, the Women’s Tennis Association and different organizations have pressed the Chinese authorities to make sure Ms. Peng’s security and to provide her an opportunity to recount freely what had occurred with Mr. Zhang.
The interview printed on Sunday got here after the worldwide arm of China’s state broadcaster, China Global Television Network, publicized an English-language e mail in Ms. Peng’s title in November. In it, she denies the sexual assault accusations and asks to be left alone.
But Steve Simon, chief government of the Women’s Tennis Association, and lots of rights activists have raised doubts about its authenticity.
In the newest interview, Ms. Peng appeared to attempt to handle these doubts. She mentioned she had written a Chinese assertion alongside those self same traces “entirely of my own free will,” after which somebody had helped her translate it into English.