The Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) Finals will be played for the first time in Fort Worth, Texas, starting on Monday, October 31. The year-end tournament was among those the WTA relocated from China in the aftermath of Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai’s (彭帅) sexual assault allegations against retired Chinese Communist Party official, Zhang Gaoli  (张高丽), and her subsequent disappearance, a year ago. Zhang, who turns 76 on November 1, is a former vice premier and Politburo Standing Committee member who also disappeared from public view after Peng posted her allegations on Weibo on November 2, 2021. In early December, given that Chinese authorities were ignoring the WTA’s demand “for a full and transparent investigation – without censorship – into Peng Shuai’s sexual assault accusation,” Steve Simon, chairman and CEO of the WTA, announced that the WTA had decided to suspend all of its tournaments in China, including Hong Kong, for 2022.  Simon said: 

“In good conscience, I don’t see how I can ask our athletes to compete there when Peng Shuai is not allowed to communicate freely and has seemingly been pressured to contradict her allegation of sexual assault.”

So the WTA Finals will be played in Texas, rather than Shenzhen. And where are Peng Shuai and Zhang Gaoli? 

            Peng has been subjected to enforced disappearance at the hands of the Chinese party-state, and she remains disappeared today. The #WhereIsPengShuai? hashtag and t-shirt campaign are as relevant and important now as they were a year ago ––if not more so. As time passes and world crises multiply, Peng is being forgotten, and gradually erased. Her few forced public appearances during the past year have been carefully controlled and stage managed––she was last seen at the Beijing Winter Olympics in February under the close watch of members of the Chinese Olympic Committee and especially IOC president Thomas Bach, who has been complicit from the outset in the CCP’s deprivation of Peng’s personal liberty and her right to freedom of expression. Peng has been silenced and Thomas Bach oddly seems to be the only person able to (purportedly) speak for her. She cannot communicate freely. 

            Zhang Gaoli, on the other hand, reappeared recently at the opening ceremony of the 20th Party Congress seated prominently alongside other high-level Communist Party officials, signaling that he had the backing of the CCP leadership and was untouchable. Peng’s allegations were trivial, meaningless. Xi secured a third five-year term as General Secretary of the CCP, unprecedented in recent times, and Zhang was present at the coronation. Xi will continue to rule with impunity and Zhang will not be investigated or otherwise held to account for Peng’s allegations. Zhang’s high profile reappearance also landed a lethal blow to the beleaguered #MeToo movement in China. Underscoring Peng Shuai’s disappearance and silencing was the setback women faced at the 20th Party Congress. For the first time in 25 years, no woman will serve on the once 25, now 24-member Politburo, the decision-making body of the CCP. And there has never been a woman on the even more powerful, smaller Politburo Standing Committee (PSC), which Zhang Gaoli served on from 2012 to 2017.  The six men, other than Xi, selected for the PSC, are all Xi loyalists. 

            During the past year, the WTA’s Steve Simon has been steadfast in doing the right thing and in defending equality for women, one of the bedrock principles of the WTA. He has repeatedly called for Chinese officials to launch a full and transparent investigation into Peng’s sexual assault allegations and demanded that he be able to speak privately and freely with Peng without any monitoring before the WTA would consider resuming tournaments in China. A tall order even before the 20th Party Congress in light of Zhang Gaoli’s status. And now, after the Congress, it’s clear that the WTA’s principled conditions will never be satisfied, and Peng will continued to be silenced and denied her freedom. 

Whither the WTA? 

            The WTA should plan for future tournament schedules that don’t include China. Perhaps the WTA could work towards developing more tournaments in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and elsewhere in Asia for next fall and beyond. In addition to Peng’s ongoing state of unfreedom–– ensured by Zhang’s recent reappearance–– the 20th Party Congress confirmed that Xi’s zero-Covid policy is here to stay. Restrictive and unpredictable zero-Covid measures, plus Xi’s “common prosperity” policy aimed at redistributing wealth (generous prize money to victorious tennis players may not sit well with “common prosperity” policy enforcers) suggest that the risks of holding tennis tournaments for women in China are simply too great. Not to mention, of course, adherence to the guiding principles that define the WTA and Steve Simon and their stance on Peng Shuai, which point to an end to WTA’s relationship with China. Simon’s words from early December 2021 remain applicable today, and unfortunately, are likely to hold true indefinitely. To reiterate, Simon said: “I don’t see how I can ask our athletes to compete [in China] when Peng Shuai is not allowed to communicate freely and has seemingly been pressured to contradict her allegation of sexual assault.”

            At the upcoming WTA Finals, Steve Simon and others should acknowledge their concern for Peng Shuai and explain what they have tried to do on her behalf, and they should be applauded for their efforts and insistence on doing what’s right–– a rarity among leaders today. November 2 marks the one-year anniversary of Peng’s Weibo post alleging the assault and falls in the middle of the week-long Finals. Players, supporters, the WTA and Hologic should think about ways to honor Peng and keep her name, and the issue of sexual assault, in the spotlight at the WTA Finals and beyond. They should assume that Peng will indirectly learn of their support on her behalf. It will undoubtedly mean a lot to Peng ––as the WNBA star Brittney Griner made clear from her prison cell in Russia recently––to know that she has not been forgotten and that her WTA family, fans, and supporters are still standing with her. There is no one in, or from, China who can speak out on her behalf. The silence of the current group of professional Chinese tennis players, while understandable, is heartbreaking.

            The WTA must plan for a future without China. 

             If only Peng Shuai could do the same. 

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By Andréa J. Worden

October 27, 2022