‘Women are tough. She will survive’: How one sexual assault claim turbocharged China’s #Metoo movement

Experts say Peng Shuai’s explosive revelation has revealed the ‘hypocrisy and corruption’ of senior officials, reports William Yang

Peng Shuai (AFP via Getty Images)

After Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai accused former Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli of sexually assaulting her in a deleted post on Weibo, the incident has renewed discussion about the #Metoo movement in China, which has been the target of a government-led crackdown over the last few years.

Within 20 minutes of making the revelation, Peng’s post disappeared from the popular microblogging site, and relevant keywords and discussion also disappeared. Experts say the immediate reaction from the Chinese government’s censorship regime shows that Beijing is trying to prevent any information about the scandal from being spread further on the internet.

“It is a very normal reaction from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), because they don’t want any scandal about current or former high-level officials to be exposed or discussed by the general public,” said Teng Biao, a Chinese human rights lawyer and a Pozen visiting professor at the University of Chicago.