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Justified criticism has been pelting IOC chief Thomas Bach in recent days. The association has allowed itself to be harnessed by Beijing’s propaganda machine. Bach’s video call with tennis player Peng Shuai was supposed to prove to the world that the 35-year-old was fine. But even video recordings prove absolutely nothing, says human rights lawyer Teng Biao.
He spoke with our author Marcel Grzanna about his own disappearance about ten years ago. For 70 days, Teng was imprisoned and tortured by state security at that time. He suspects that Peng Shuai, although not physically injured, is put under massive psychological pressure. “The goal is for the victims’ fear to become so great that they are willing to do anything to avoid the consequences,” Teng describes the authorities’ approach in an interview with China.Table.
The case of the well-known athlete is particularly troublesome for Beijing – just months before the Winter Olympics kick off, it has the potential to drag the morale and character of China’s most powerful men into the spotlight. William Nee of Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD), an international coalition of human rights organizations, suspects the government is still trying to find a solution as to how best to handle the matter.
And whether Peng Shuai will ever be able to stand on the court again and pursue her sports career is more than questionable.
Amelie Richter
Feature
Peng Shuai abducted – freedom only after self-criticism?
Sleep deprivation, beatings, and hours of cross-legged sitting: for 70 days in 2011, human rights lawyer Teng Biao was psychologically and physically tortured by Chinese security forces. For 70 days, the now 48-year-old disappeared from the face of the earth – locked away in a hotel that the police and state security had converted for their own purposes. Family and friends knew nothing of Teng’s whereabouts. His crime: He had tried to take Chinese laws at their word and defend victims of human rights abuses against the state.
Ten years later, Teng looks at the case of tennis player Peng Shuai from his exile in the US. “She is a very famous person. So I don’t think they are physically torturing her. But I know from my own experience that they put her under enormous psychological pressure,” says Teng in an interview with China.Table.
Peng accuses one of the country’s most powerful politicians of sexual assault. Her public accusation via short message service Weibo was the catalyst for her disappearance in early November. While photos and videos circulated via state media in recent days suggest that Peng is physically unharmed, no one outside China believes that she can move freely, as the images suggest. “I assume she is being held in a hotel and doesn’t know what is going on outside,” Teng says.
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