Apprehension grows over missing Chinese Tennis star
By Babafemi Busari
A purported email released by Chinese state media has people worried about the missing Tennis player.
The ongoing search by fans of the missing Tennis star, Peng Shuai, is growing in apprehension levels. After an email that was purportedly penned by her was released by Chinese state media, CGTN, that claims she is “safe and currently resting at home”. The email was supposedly directed to the president of the Women’s Tennis Association to ask them to allow her privacy and stop making statements about her.
Peng Shuai recently went missing after she made a post accusing a top Chinese official of sexual assault through her social media. Since then, the post has been removed from her social media page whilst every trace of the popular tennis star has been scrubbed off the Chinese internet. This has her fans and colleagues alike worried about her safety.
The suspiciousness of the email that supposedly emanated from Shuai was even more suspicious as it recanted on the sexual assault claims that she made before her sudden disappearance. The statement read “Regarding the recent news released on the official website of the WTA, the content has not been confirmed or verified by myself and it was released without my consent,” the letter said.
"The news in that release, including the allegation of sexual assault, is not true. I’m not missing, nor I am unsafe. I’ve just been resting at home and everything is fine. Thank you again for caring about me.”
Her disappearance has been spoken about by prominent people in Tennis with Naomi Osaka especially expressing shock over Shuai’s sudden disappearance.
The two-week-long search for Peng Shuai has grown especially scary after the email emerged with fans wondering about the kind of treatment that could be meted on her since she disappeared. With other prominent people having suffered similar fates in the past in the hands of the Chinese government, one of which was Jack Ma who disappeared for 3 months before resurfacing and becoming a shadow of his former bubbly self.
https://www.pulse.ng/sports/apprehension-grows-over-missing-chinese-tennis-star/44t05vy
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