Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai on Sunday said she has never been sexually assaulted by anyone. According to Singaporean newspaper, Lianhe Zaobao in Shanghai, Peng said she was living at her home in Beijing and was not under any kind of official supervision.

It was a short interview where for the first time Peng directly spoke to the media after dropping out of sight following her allegation that former CPC politburo standing committee member and vice-premier Zhang Gaoli had sexually assaulted her.

Peng had posted the allegation on her verified Twitter-like Weibo account. However, now she denied her own allegation.

Peng said, “First of all, I want to emphasise something that is very important. I have never said that I wrote that anyone sexually assaulted me. I need to emphasise this point very clearly.”

She added, “Regarding Weibo, first of all, it’s a matter related to my personal privacy. Everyone has had many misunderstandings. Their misreadings do not stand.”

According to another Singapore newspaper, the Straits Times, when she was asked if she was under surveillance following the matter, she replied after a brief hesitation, “Why would that be the case? I have always been very free.”

Peng Shuai added that an e-mail she had sent to the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) head Steve Simon in November assuring him that she was safe was legitimate.

Peng said she wrote the Chinese version of the e-mail “entirely of my own free will.”

“What was conveyed (by CGTN) was no different from what I meant to convey to Mr Simon,” she added.

Peng is a former Chinese world number one in doubles tennis and earlier had accused former Zhang, 75, of coercing her into having sex and subsequently continuing an on-and-off secret relationship with her for years.

Zhang is the vice premier and was among the seven members of the CPC Politburo Standing Committee, the highest decision-making body in China, between 2013 and 2018, under President Xi Jinping.

China has not directly commented on Peng’s initial post, but said after the WTA’s move to suspend tournaments in China that it “opposes the politicisation of sports”. Zhang has not commented on the matter.

Image credit: ZEE5