Tennis ace Andy Murray has joined an online campaign to help find missing a Chinese tennis player who has gone missing after accusing a government official of sexual assault.
Murray tweeted that Peng Shuai's "whereabouts (are) currently unknown" after following her allegations, which have sparked concern many members of the professional tennis circuit.
The two-time Wimbledon winner also linked to a video of Czech player Barbora Krejcikova speaking about her country's liberation from communism during the Velvet Revolution of 1989.
Female tennis player Peng Shuai whereabouts currently unknown after making Sexual abuse allegations against Chinese government official.
— Andy Murray (@andy_murray) November 19, 2021
This speech gives us a reminder and some hope that things can change in the future 🙏 #WhereIsPengShuai https://t.co/eKnLCHcPLj
Other stars including Serena Williams, Naomi Osaka and Novak Djokovic are among those who have voiced concer for Peng's welfare.
China's foreign ministry claimed on Friday that it was unaware of the controversy.
Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian told reporters it was "not a diplomatic question and I'm not aware of the situation".
Peng, 35, a former Wimbledon doubles champion, wrote a social media post on 2 November accusing a former top government official of forcing her to have sex after playing tennis at his home.
Her original post on Weibo has been taken down.
An email said to be from Peng was released on Wednesday by CGTN, the international arm of government-controlled state broadcaster CCTV, but doubts have been raised over its authenticity.
It says the sexual assault claim "is not true" and adds: "I'm not missing, nor am I unsafe. I've just been resting at home and everything is fine".
Steve Simon, the head of the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) said it "only raises my concerns as to her safety and whereabouts".
"I have a hard time believing that Peng Shuai actually wrote the email we received or believes what is being attributed to her," he said in a statement.
"Peng Shuai displayed incredible courage in describing an allegation of sexual assault against a former top official in the Chinese government.
"The WTA and the rest of the world need independent and verifiable proof that she is safe. I have repeatedly tried to reach her via numerous forms of communication, to no avail."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel