Women's Tennis Association suspend all of its tournaments in mainland China and Hong Kong in response to Beijing's treatment of Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai
Until now, China's leaders had never faced a western organization willing to prioritize human rights more than profits
by Helen Raleigh, FoxNews.com, December 3, 2021
Steve Simon, the Chairman, and CEO of the Women's Tennis Association (WTA), announced this week that the WTA would suspend all of its tournaments in mainland China and Hong Kong in response to Beijing's treatment of Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai.
Peng ranked No. 1 in the world as a doubles player WTA in 2014. A three-time Olympian, she is one of the most recognized athletes in China. In early November, Peng posted a heartfelt essay on a Chinese social media platform, accusing a senior Chinese Communist Party official (CCP), Zhang Gaoli, of sexual assault three years ago. Zhang was a Senior Vice Premier of Communist China between 2013 and 2018.
Chinese censors quickly removed Peng's post, locked her account, made her name and images unsearchable, and deleted all online discussions of Peng. The Chinese authorities not only wiped out Peng's existence in the digital world, but they made her physically "disappear," too. Hundreds and thousands of Chinese citizens, including China's richest man Jack Ma, have similarly been forcefully "disappeared." But what China didn't expect was an international backlash led by the WTA and its most influential stars.
The WTA called on Beijing to investigate Peng's allegations of sexual assault and had tried to reach Peng directly. Many prominent tennis stars, including Serena Williams, Naomi Osaka, WTA founder Billie Jean King, and the world's No. 1 men's tennis player, Novak Djokovic, spoke about Peng's safety concerns.
Their star power has kept Peng's disappearance as headlines worldwide for days. Even many pro-Beijing organizations such as the United Nations felt compelled to call on Beijing to prove Peng's whereabouts and safety.
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The WTA's chairman and CEO, Steve Simon, deserves credit for being willing to do something that few western organizations had done before. Simon let it be knownthat the WTA is willing to pull its lucrative business out of China and lose millions of dollars if Peng's allegation is not thoroughly investigated, and she's not spoken with directly because "this is bigger than the business."
The CCP had never faced a western organization willing to prioritize human rights more than profits. Plenty of western companies, organizations, business people, and politicians have shown that they will bend their knees to the party for the sake of profits and market access.
The most recent corporate kowtowing came from JP Morgan Chase's CEO Jamie Dimon, who apologized twice within 24 hours after making a joke about his bank would outlast the Chinese Communist Party. From the CCP's standpoint, why should it change its behaviors when so many are willing to fold without it even asking?
But this time is different. The WTA has shown that it won't betray its values for the sake of profit. Since it is less than 100 days before the Beijing Winter Olympic Games, the CCP desperately wants the news to go away. But its responses have been clumsy and ineffective.
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