“These allegations are not shocking in substance but are shocking in the target,” Bill Bishop,the founder ofSinocism,a newsletter on Chinese affairs,wrote.
An economist by education,Zhang,now 75,rose through the ranks of the party and government. He served as governor of Shandong,the coastal province,and then as party secretary in Tianjin,the provincial-level port city on the Bohai Sea. As vice premier from 2013-18,he was one of seven members of the Politburo Standing Committee,headed then,as now,by President Xi Jinping.
“I know that for someone of your eminence,Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli,you’ve said that you’re not afraid,” Peng wrote in her post,“but even if it’s just me,like an egg hitting a rock,or a moth to the flame,courting self-destruction,I’ll tell the truth about you.”
Women in media,at universities and in the private sector in China have allcome forward with accusations of sexual assault and harassment — only to face pushback in the courts and censorship online.
In China,many women say,there remains an ingrained patriarchal tradition of using positions in business or government to gain sexual favours from subordinates or other women. In 2016,the country’s top prosecuting agency listed the exchange of “power for sex recklessly” as one of six traits of senior officials accused of corruption.
The accuser in another high-profile harassment case,Zhou Xiaoxuan,posted a note expressing sympathy for Peng,illustrating how widely the accusation became known despite the censorship. “I hope she’s safe and sound,” she wrote.
Zhou,who in 2018 accused a prominent television anchor of sexual harassment four years earlier,emerged as a trailblazer of China’s fledgling #MeToo movement and also a victim of the social and legal challenges women who come forward face. In September,a court in Beijing ruled that she had “tendered insufficient evidence” to prove her case against the anchor,Zhu Jun,who has sued her for slander.
Zhang retired in 2018,when,according to Peng’s account,the two resumed a relationship that had begun when he served in Tianjin,which would have been between 2007-12. She said he had first assaulted her after inviting her to play tennis with him and his wife. “I never consented that afternoon,crying all the time,” she wrote,not specifying when exactly the assault occurred.
At the time she was soaring through a professional career that would propel her to a No. 1 ranking in doubles with the Women’s Tennis Association in 2014 and as high as 14th as a singles player.
With her doubles partner,Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan,she won the championship at Wimbledon in 2013 and again at the French Open in 2014. That year,playing singles,she reached the semifinals of the US Open. She remains ranked 189th in singles and 248th in doubles,last playing at the Qatar Total Open in February 2020,according to the association.
Loading
She was one of the athletes who broke out of the country’s sports system,which mandates that most train under state coaches and give most of their earnings,even from endorsements,back to the state. She was one of the first to reach an agreement to allow her to train and travel by herself and keep a larger share of the earnings.
Her post continued to circulate in screenshots and other messages even after it was deleted,a testament to the resonance accusations like hers has in Chinese society.
“The censorship is not working,” Lü,the activist,said. She added that while it was important that people were discussing the issue,“changing policy is the most difficult part”.
This article originally appeared inThe New York Times.