Talk:Peng Shuai/Trim1

=Draft= In November 2021, Peng accused Zhang Gaoli, a retired Chinese vice-premier and high-ranking CCP member, reportedly of sexual assault in 2018. Her Weibo post also revealed an even earlier encounter between them. During her 2018 visit with Zhang and his wife, he made another advance. Despite mixed feelings and refusing at first, Peng was talked into agreeing. They renewed their semi-private relationship until a dispute on 30 October. Peng's post drew attention to the MeToo movement in China, where activist Zhou Xiaoxuan expressed her sympathies, but it was removed ... (continued next)

=Discussion= ...

=Old version= On 2 November 2021, Peng posted a lengthy message on her verified Weibo account where, according to several media outlets, she accused Zhang Gaoli, a retired Chinese vice-premier and member of the Politburo Standing Committee (PSC) of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), of having forced or pressured her into sex three years previously. Deutsche Welle, SET News, and United Daily News provided screenshots of her post, where Peng mentioned a sexual encounter with Zhang at least seven years before. Zhang, who was 40 years her senior, had pursued her initially. Upon his appointment to the PSC, Zhang stopped contacting her. About three years before, however, after his retirement, Zhang and his wife brought Peng to their home after a tennis game. He wanted to be intimate with Peng, who kept crying and disagreed at first. After having supper with the couple and some more persuasion from Zhang, while scared and nervous but still carrying feelings for him from the past, Peng in the end agreed. The incident apparently rekindled an extramarital affair and Peng wrote that they would at times talk for hours, play chess and tennis, and "getting along so well that everything just felt right". Every time she visited Zhang, however, Peng suffered humiliation from his wife's verbal abuse. Zhang had said that while he loved Peng, divorcing his wife was politically impossible, and Peng lamented about the importance of title and status ("名分"). Following a dispute on 30 October, with Zhang seemingly about to "disappear" on her again, Peng came out with her account, despite not having made any audio or video recordings as evidence of her relationship with Zhang. According to Shannon Tiezzie of The Diplomat, unhappiness with the hidden nature of the relationship and repeated slights apparently caused Peng to post her story, while Cindy Yu, writing for The Spectator, expounded upon the modern phenomenon of rich, successful men in China keeping "concubines".

While Chinese authorities have charged officials in the past with sexual misconduct under corruption, this was the first time a member of the top echelon of the CCP has faced public allegations. Peng's revelations drew attention to the #MeToo movement in China, which in 2021 saw the arrest of Kris Wu and the firing of a male Alibaba executive after widespread discussions online and criticisms from state media. In contrast, Peng's post was removed from Weibo within 20 minutes of being uploaded, although screenshots of it were saved, and all discussion about the matter became subject to blanket censorship in China. Despite this, knowledge of the news continued to circulate in some form in China, with #MeToo activist Zhou Xiaoxuan expressing sympathy for Peng.

=Notes=

=References=