Protecting predators: China covers up sexual assault allegations against former Vice Premier by tennis star

A powerful man in China sexually assaulted a woman, then used his position to mentally torture her and forced her to submit to his demands. The victim was helpless; forget about complaining, she couldn't even describe her ordeal to anyone because speaking out means dangerous consequences.

This story from China, sadly, resembles the stories of several women all around the world. Some women decided to speak out and thus began the MeToo movement. Women speaking out and exposing powerful men is a very difficult battle for any woman, and even more if she lives in China.

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Zhang Gaoli is 75 years old politician in China. An economist by education, he served as the governor of Shandong and was also the party secretary of Tianjin. In 2013, he was appointed as the Vice Premier of China, which made him the seventh most powerful man the country. He served at the position for five years before retiring in 2018.

Peng Shuai is one of the biggest tennis stars of China, a former world number one in doubles, winner of the French Open and the Wimbledon. She has claimed that she was sexually assaulted by Zhang Gaoli and has suffered since then but has finally decided to speak out.

Late on Tuesday, she published a lengthy post on Weibo — Chinese take on Twitter — in which she made appalling allegations.

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A sexual predator in the top ranks of the communist party, serving at the highest levels of the Chinese government, Zhang Gaoli retired three years ago but his party is still protecting him.

Zhang Gaoli says she first made contact with Peng Shuai in Tianjin where he was serving as party secretary. The alleged assault took place three years ago when Gaoli had invited Shuai for a meal. He then pressured her to have sex.

"I never consented that afternoon, crying all the time. I wasn’t willing after supper, and you said you hated me! You said you never forgot me in the seven years and promised to be kind to me. With fear and panic, and with my feelings from seven years ago, I agreed,” her post on Weibo reads.

The three years that followed were apparently an ordeal for Shuai.

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 She writes: "I know that for someone of your eminence, vice premier zhang gaoli, you’ve said that you’re not afraid. 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."

Shuai says she was forced into a relationship with Gaoli.

What makes this an exceptional act of courage on the part of Shuai is that such stories are virtually unheard of in China. Never before the world has heard of a senior communist party official being publicly accused of sexual assault.

This can bring a lot of damage to the Chinese President Xi Jinping. Due to this, Beijing is doing everything it can to kill this story. Chinese censors have gone into an overdrive. They first went after Peng Shuai as her post was deleted just 20 minutes after it went online. After that, her Weibo account was hidden and no one was allowed to comment on her previous posts; even the tennis and other sports forums have also been silenced.

While this is going on, Chinese officials are pretending that nothing has happened. When China's ministry of foreign affairs was asked about these allegations, the spokesperson said they hadn't even heard about the post.

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However, no one is surprised by this response as in China, the culture of silence prevails. In the past, women in media, at universities and the private sector have come forward with accusations of sexual assault. They said it's almost like a tradition in their country that men in powerful positions demand sexual favours and the system looks the other way. In China, many women say, there remains an ingrained patriarchal tradition of using positions in business or government to gain sexual favours, reports claim.

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. Even the country's top prosecuting country agrees. The same year, they released a report on the traits of corrupt officials and the exchange of quote unquote "Power for sex recklessly" featured prominently in that report.

The most high-profile case of sexual assault in China emerged in 2018 when Zhou Xiaoxuan took a prominent TV anchor, Zhu Jun, to court, only to be counter sued for slander. A court in Beijing said there was "insufficient evidence" against the anchor.