Chinese tennis star accuses former top Communist Party leader of sexual assault, triggering blanket censorship

Hong Kong (CNN)A Chinese tennis star's explosive #MeToo allegation against a former state leader has been muffled by blanket censorship, with authorities racing to wipe out any mention of a politically sensitive scandal that has reverberated across the Chinese internet.

Peng Shuai, 35, a former Wimbledon and French Open doubles champion, on Tuesday accused retired Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli of pressuring her into having sex, according to screenshots of a since-deleted post from Peng's verified account on Weibo, China's Twitter-like social media platform.

CNN could not independently verify the authenticity of the more than 1,600-word post, and has reached out to Peng for comment, as well as China's State Council Information Office, which handles press inquires for the central government.

In the post, which reads as an open letter to Zhang, she alleges a relationship over an intermittent period that spanned at least 10 years. Peng says she opened her heart to Zhang, who is now 75 years old.

"Why did you have to come back to me, took me to your home to force me to have sex with you? Yes, I did not have any evidence, and it was simply impossible to have evidence," she wrote.

"I couldn't describe how disgusted I was, and how many times I asked myself am I still a human? I feel like a walking corpse. Every day I was acting, which person is the real me?"

CNN could not reach Zhang, who served on the ruling Communist Party's seven person Politburo Standing Committee, the country's supreme leadership body, from 2012 to 2017 during Chinese leader Xi Jinping's first term in power. He retired as vice premier in 2018.

In China, top leaders of Zhang's standing remain unapproachable and private even after retirement, which makes reaching him to comment for this story virtually impossible.

China's fledgling #MeToo movement has targeted academics, NGO workers and celebrities in the past -- with varying results. But this is the first time it has reached the very upper echelons of the Communist Party.

"We must realize how remarkable it is for Peng Shuai to choose to speak out. Few people would have the courage to do that, because it could come at the expense of the safety of yourself and your family," said Lv Pin, a prominent Chinese feminist now based in New York.

Adding to the political sensitivity, the scandal also came just days before a crucial meeting of party elites in Beijing, which is expected to pave the way for Xi Jinping to cement a third term in office.

Blanket censorship

As Peng's allegations made waves online, censorship kicked in with a speed and ferocity unseen in any of the country's previous #MeToo cases.

Her lengthy post, published shortly after 10 p.m. on Tuesday, was deleted in under 30 minutes. Screenshots of it had initially circulated widely across social media and in private chat groups, but soon they were censored too, along with other posts discussing the case.

Peng's verified account, which has more than half a million followers, remains on Weibo as of Wednesday evening. But it has been blocked from searches. All comment sections under her previous posts have been shut down too.

In a sign of the unprecedented level of censorship, even a Weibo discussion page about tennis was closed for comments. And obscure references to the scandal were removed, too.

On Douban, China's IMDB-like movie review website, the page of Korean romance TV show "Prime Minister and I" was censored, after users discussed Peng's case in its review section.

The swift and thorough censorship stands in stark contrast to the response to other recent high-profile #MeToo cases, such as the rape allegations against Canadian-Chinese pop star Kris Wu.

That scandal was allowed to gain huge traction on social media, dominating top trending topics on Weibo for days, while state media amplified the accusation, censuring Wu for his moral decadence.

Wu was subsequently arrested on suspicion of rape. Before he was detained, Wu had denied the allegations on his personal Weibo account. His company said it was pursuing legal action against his accuser, calling the accusations "malicious rumors."

Soon afterward, the government unleashed a sweeping crackdown on the entertainment industry, canceling a host of "misbehaving celebrities."

The allegations

Peng claimed in her post that she first had sex with Zhang more than 10 years ago, when Zhang served as the Communist Party boss of Tianjin, a coastal city to the southeast of Beijing. But Zhang broke off contact after he was promoted to the Politburo Standing Committee in Beijing, according to the post.

It did not explain the circumstances of their first sexual engagement.