{"id":1282842,"date":"2022-02-08T18:09:04","date_gmt":"2022-02-08T23:09:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1282842"},"modified":"2022-02-08T18:09:13","modified_gmt":"2022-02-08T23:09:13","slug":"journalist-calls-his-own-interview-with-tennis-star-peng-shuai-chinese-propaganda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/journalist-calls-his-own-interview-with-tennis-star-peng-shuai-chinese-propaganda\/","title":{"rendered":"Journalist Calls His Own Interview with Tennis Star Peng Shuai Chinese &#039;Propaganda&#039;"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fjournalist-calls-his-own-interview-with-tennis-star-peng-shuai-chinese-propaganda%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1282842&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p class=\"subheading\">A journalist who met with Chinese tennis champion Peng Shuai \u2013 who disappeared from the public spotlight in November after accusing the former head of the Chinese Olympic Committee of rape \u2013 told the Associated Press (AP) on Tuesday that the resulting interview itself was \u201cpropaganda.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Marc Ventouillac met Peng in person in Beijing alongside colleague&nbsp;Sophie Dorgan for an interview published on Sunday in the French sports magazine&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.lequipe.fr\/Tennis\/Article\/Peng-shuai-my-life-has-been-what-it-s-supposed-to-be-nothing-special\/1315638\"><em>L\u2019Equipe<\/em><\/a>. The reporters admitted in publishing the answers that the Chinese government demanded to see the questions before agreeing to the interview and that a Communist Party chaperone was present for the entire event. The Party handler translated Peng\u2019s answers and the magazine did not print a Chinese written language version of them, so the answers are the government\u2019s version of what she said. Without the raw answers in Mandarin, assessing the accuracy of that translation is impossible.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"gmxrevmore\" class=\"H\"><\/figure>\n<p>Peng disappeared in November after publishing a long update on Weibo, a Chinese government-controlled social media site, accusing former Chinese Olympic Committee leader Zhang Gaoli of forcing her to have sex with him. The post then confessed a consensual affair and suicidal thoughts. It disappeared from the site less than an hour after being posted and Peng herself soon followed suit.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_19802018\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Australian-Open-Peng-Shuai.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-19802018 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Australian-Open-Peng-Shuai.jpg\" alt=\"Supporters of Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai hold up T-shirts ahead of the women&#039;s final at the Australian Open tennis championships in Melbourne, Australia, Saturday, Jan. 29, 2022. Peng, the former No. 1- ranked doubles player who won titles at Wimbledon and the French Open, dropped out of public view in November after accusing a former high-ranking Chinese government official, vice premier Zhang Gaoli, of sexual assault.\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Supporters of Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai hold up T-shirts ahead of the women\u2019s final at the Australian Open tennis championships in Melbourne, Australia, Saturday, Jan. 29, 2022.&nbsp;Tertius Pickard\/AP<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Peng <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/news\/new-video-of-china-tennis-star-surfaces-amid-global-outcry\/\">resurfaced<\/a> weeks later in Chinese state media claiming that her public Weibo post was a \u201cprivate\u201d matter and that she had never accused anyone of sexual assault.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p>In the interview with <em>L\u2019Equipe<\/em>, the government handler claimed that Peng insisted that she \u201cnever disappeared\u201d and never accused anyone of sexual assault. The government translator claimed that Peng also expressed a bizarre newfound love of winter sports and enthusiastically promoted the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, which human rights groups around the world have condemned as an attempt to normalize genocide.<\/p>\n<p>Ventouillac <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/winter-olympics-peng-shuai-speaks-473252e0d274b00262325ae5ad52ebed\">told<\/a> AP he did not believe the&nbsp;<em>L\u2019Equipe<\/em> interview conveyed the message he believed the Chinese Communist Party was trying to send: that Peng was safe, free to speak her mind, and suffered no government retribution for accusing a senior Party official of rape.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a part of communication, propaganda, from the Chinese Olympic Committee,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-55 Component-p-0-2-46\">\u201cIt\u2019s important, I think, for the Chinese Olympic Committee, for the Communist Party and for many people in China to try to show: \u2018No, there is no Peng Shuai affair,\u2019\u201d Ventouillac explained. His interview was an attempt on their part, he continued, to show \u201c\u2018OK, there is no problem with Peng Shuai. See? Journalists (came), they can ask all the questions they wanted.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-55 Component-p-0-2-46\">Ventouillac said that the government handler did not reject any of the journalists\u2019 questions, including some introduced on-the-spot outside of the previously approved list of questions. He also said that Peng\u2019s handler issued answers to all of the questions. Peng, speaking in Mandarin, appeared to respond to the questions with memorized answers, Ventouillac said.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B3\" class=\"a8d adSo\"><\/figure>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-55 Component-p-0-2-46\">\u201cShe answered our questions without hesitating \u2014 with, I imagine, answers that she knew. She knew what she was going to say,\u201d he assessed. \u201cBut you can\u2019t know whether it was formatted or something. She said what we expected her to say.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-55 Component-p-0-2-46\">The journalist added that Peng appeared nervous and hesitant when answering questions about her rape accusations, which she now denies.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-55 Component-p-0-2-46\">\u201cWe started by asking questions about tennis because that\u2019s her domain, her field. It\u2019s not controversial. It helped her relax, unwind,\u201d he narrated. \u201cWe then got to the questions about the \u2018Peng Shuai affair\u2019 itself and there, my sense from her looks \u2014 and my colleague Sophie had about the same impression \u2014 was that she was being more attentive, becoming more nervous. A raised eyebrow. A squint. So she was being careful with the questions and also, I think, careful with her responses.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-55 Component-p-0-2-46\">Peng\u2019s original Weibo post was addressed to Zhang, though it was posted as a public update, and narrated a story that ended with Peng saying Zhang \u201cforced\u201d himself on her. Much debate over her meaning centers around the translation of the Chinese text for the word \u201cforced,\u201d though most translations agree that the word clearly indicates coercion, not consent.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-55 Component-p-0-2-46\">In the&nbsp;<em>L\u2019Equipe<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/sports\/2022\/02\/07\/i-never-disappeared-china-trots-out-tennis-star-peng-shuai-as-genocide-olympics-mascot\/\">interview<\/a>, the Chinese regime handler claimed that Peng was confused as to why her post worried anyone.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI would like to know: why such concern? \u2026 I never said anyone sexually assaulted me,\u201d the government official claimed she said. \u201cThere was a huge misunderstanding in the outside world following this post. I don\u2019t want the meaning of this post to be twisted anymore. And I don\u2019t want any further media hype around it. Sexual assault? I never said anyone had sexually assaulted me in any way.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-55 Component-p-0-2-46\">The Communist Party chaperone claimed that Peng insisted that the post disappeared because she personally \u201cwanted to\u201d delete it, not because the government censored it.<\/p>\n<p>Peng has made multiple <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/lifestyle\/sports\/peng-shuai-watches-gu-win-chinese-gold-big-air-2022-02-08\/\">appearances<\/a> at ongoing Winter Olympics competitions, most recently on Tuesday&nbsp;at a cross-country skiing event.<\/p>\n<p><em>Follow Frances Martel on&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/francesimartel\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/francesimartel\/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1643765950098000&amp;usg=AOvVaw23AQC9DygBP6Uvx2AKooEo\">Facebook<\/a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/francesmartel\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/twitter.com\/francesmartel&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1643765950098000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1V8tY067ZdeWpATK5ZWNXI\">Twitter.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A journalist who met with Chinese tennis champion Peng Shuai \u2013 who disappeared from the public spotlight in November after accusing the former head of the Chinese Olympic Committee of &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1282842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1282842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1282842"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1282842\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1282842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1282842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1282842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}