BEIJING (AP) — The disappearance of tennis star Peng Shuai in China following her accusation of sexual assault against a former top Communist Party official has shined a spotlight on similar cases involving political dissidents, entertainers, business leaders and others who have run afoul of the authorities.
A look at those cases and the background on such actions.
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WHAT HAPPENED TO PENG SHUAI?
Despite an outcry in the tennis world and global media, Chinese officials have not directly addressed the accusation posted online by Grand Slam doubles champion Peng more than two weeks ago. Peng said she was sexually assaulted by Zhang Gaoli, a former vice premier and member of the party’s all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee.
Peng, 35, is a former No. 1-ranked player in women’s doubles who won titles at Wimbledon in 2013 and the French Open in 2014. She also participated in three Olympics, making her disappearance all the more prominent with Beijing set to host the Winter Games starting Feb. 4.
Peng wrote in a lengthy social media post on Nov. 2 that Zhang had forced her to have sex three years ago, despite her repeated refusals. The post was quickly deleted from her verified account on Weibo, a leading Chinese social media platform, but screenshots of the explosive accusation quickly spread across China’s internet.
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WHY DO PEOPLE DISAPPEAR IN CHINA?
China says it is a nation “ruled by law,” but the Communist Party ultimately holds sway and there are large gray areas of enforcement. Control over the press and social media allows authorities to keep word of disappearances quiet and to stonewall critics, although such news often gradually surfaces through underground and foreign sources.
Among Chinese celebrities in the entertainment world, tangling with the authorities can be a career killer. For business leaders, it can mean a loss of status, market access and possible incarceration. With political dissidents, it often means disappearance into the vast security state, without access to family or legal recourse.
Even before taking power in 1949, the Communist Party underwent numerous rounds of vicious internecine struggles during which those on the losing side were disposed of without due process. The 1966-76 Cultural Revolution saw politicians, educators and musicians locked up for years without charge, often in solitary confinement.
Today, the party’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection handles most major charges against ranking officials, who may drop out of sight for months before a terse statement is issued saying they are under investigation for “severe violations of rules and regulations.” Heavy sentences are later announced, with little or no details given about the charges or the evidence brought against them.
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WHAT FAMOUS PEOPLE HAVE GONE MISSING?
Notable people who have dropped from sight under circumstances that remain unclear include business leader Jack Ma and famous actress Fan Bingbing.
Ma, China’s most prominent entrepreneur and the founder of Alibaba Group, the world’s biggest e-commerce company, stopped appearing in public after he criticized regulators as being too conservative in an October 2020 speech.
Days later, the government ordered Ma’s Ant Group, a financial service that grew out of Alibaba’s online payments business, to suspend a planned stock market debut in Hong Kong and Shanghai.
Rumors on social media questioned whether Ma had been detained. Friends of Ma reportedly said he wasn’t detained but decided to stay quiet following criticism of his comments. Ma reappeared two months later in a January 2020 video released by Alibaba but made no mention of his disappearance.
Fan disappeared for three months before news emerged that tax authorities had ordered her and companies she represented to pay taxes and penalties totaling $130 million.
People can drop off the map if they are linked to disputes with the politically well-connected involving business and reputation.
Businesswoman Duan Weihong disappeared in 2017 and her husband, Desmond Shum, said he didn’t hear from her for four years until he was preparing to publish a book about corruption among Chinese elites. Shum told Time magazine his wife begged him in a phone call not to publish his book, “Red Roulette.”
Duan, also known as Whitney Duan, was cited by The New York Times in a 2012 series of articles about the family wealth of then-Premier Wen Jiabao, China’s No. 2 leader. It remains unclear what exactly prompted her disappearance.
A real estate mogul, Ren Zhiqiang, disappeared from public view in March 2020 after criticizing President Xi Jinping’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic. Ren was sentenced later that year to 18 years in prison on corruption charges.
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WHAT OTHER KINDS OF PEOPLE DISAPPEAR?
In a rare case that appeared in the open, Swedish citizen Gui Minhai disappeared in 2015, when he was believed to have been abducted by Chinese agents from his seaside home in Thailand.
He and four others who worked for the same Hong Kong company that published books critical of the Communist Party all went missing at about the same time and turned up months later in police custody in mainland China.
A court in eastern China later sentenced him to 10 years in prison for “illegally providing intelligence overseas.”
China has also snatched some foreigners.
Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor were detained in China in December 2018, shortly after Canada arrested Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei, on a U.S. extradition request. China delayed announcing their detentions for days, then denied that the arrests were linked. The two were released in September after Meng was allowed to return to China.
Even a scientist, gene-editing researcher He Jiankui, disappeared from public view for almost a year after announcing his controversial research at a conference in Hong Kong. He was eventually convicted of practicing medicine without a license in December 2019.
Accompanying the news of Peng’s disappearance, the wife of the former president of Interpol, who was taken into custody on a trip back to China in September 2018, told The Associated Press that she and her lawyers have been unable to contact him since that date.
State media reported that Meng Hongwei admitted taking bribes, but Grace Meng said her husband was the victim of a political vendetta.
The disappeared also include large numbers of Uyghurs and members of other predominately Muslim minority groups who have been targeted in what the government calls a campaign against extremism, separatism and terrorism.
Following attacks on government and civilian targets, more than 1 million men and women were forced into prison-like political re-education camps officially described as de-radicalization bases and job training centers.
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This story corrects when Ma reappeared in a video.
Tennis trailblazer: Peng known for her grit on the court
Struggling to stay upright as suffocating heat and humidity drained her energy in the U.S. Open semifinals, Peng Shuai refused to give up.
She paused between points to clutch at her left thigh and put her weight on her racket as if it were a cane. She leaned against a wall and wiped away tears.
Helped off the court and diagnosed with heat stroke, doctors told her to quit. But Peng still came back for more. Six more points until she eventually collapsed to the ground and Caroline Wozniacki, her opponent in that 2014 match, came around the net to check on her.
Only then, with her body pushed to the absolute limit — maybe even beyond the limit — did Peng retire from the match that marked the pinnacle of her singles career.
Ultimately, she was taken away in a wheelchair.
For a player who overcame heart surgery at the age of 12, quitting doesn’t come lightly to the trailblazing tennis standout, who has disappeared after accusing a former top Chinese official of sexually assaulting her.
Her hard-earned grit carried her to 23 tour-level doubles titles, including at Wimbledon in 2013 and the French Open in 2014.
“Very determined,” was the way German player Laura Siegemund, one of Peng’s former doubles partners, described her in a phone interview with The Associated Press. “She has also a great sense for the game. Off court she’s just a sweet person — more introverted, more quiet — but a super nice and humble person. … I can’t believe that this is happening in the 21st century. But I think the more people come together and speak up, that’s really important. I hope she is fine.”
China’s Foreign Ministry on Friday stuck to its line that it wasn’t aware of the controversy surrounding Peng, while White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that Chinese authorities should “provide independent and verifiable proof of her whereabouts and that she is safe.”
A social media campaign with the hashtag #WhereIsPengShuai has been trending on Twitter as players like Naomi Osaka and Serena Williams have spoken out.
“I’m very worried to hear this news. You don’t know what is true, what is not true,” Siegemund said. “In the end, all this needs to be investigated further. But in the very first place, it just needs to be made sure that she’s OK. It’s just concerning that she kind of really disappeared. That’s very disturbing to me.”
Siegemund also noted that China usually hosts several WTA tournaments each year.
“Let’s hope for the best. It’s good that a lot of people are talking about this. It’s a very dangerous situation for everybody — even speaking up,” Siegemund said.
Introduced to tennis at the age of 8 by an uncle, the 35-year-old Peng is an admirer of John McEnroe and has a lucky cow on her tennis bag to honor her birth in a year of the ox.
When she reached the No. 1 ranking in doubles in February 2014, Peng became the first Chinese player — male or female — to reach the top spot in either singles or doubles.
Peng has an unusual playing style featuring two-handed grips on both forehands and backhands.
“Very unique, very different style. But she had a great career and she had amazing results in her career,” Siegemund said. “She has a really good eye, really good strokes — a different, but great, player.”
Besides her two Grand Slam titles in doubles — both achieved with Taiwanese partner Hsieh Su-wei — Peng also reached the Australian Open final in 2017 with Andrea Hlavackova.
Peng won her only tournament with Siegemund in Guangzhou, China, in September 2019.
“We had an intense week there,” Siegemund said. “We had the fans behind us and it was really nice to play with a Chinese player in China.”
Siegemund said that while there was a bit of a language barrier between them, Peng “was always in a good mood. She was always up to hit.
“I always wanted to play more with her. But it didn’t happen for several reasons,” added Siegemund, who is currently recovering from right knee surgery.
In singles, besides her U.S. Open semifinal appearance, Peng also won two titles — at Tianjin in 2016 and Nanchang in 2017 — and finished runner-up in seven tournaments.
Attempting to follow in the footsteps of Li Na, a fellow Chinese player and the first Grand Slam singles champion from Asia, Peng also reached the fourth round at Wimbledon three times in singles, the fourth round at the Australian Open twice and the third round at the French Open twice.
Her top ranking in singles was No. 14 in August 2011.
Peng played for China when her country hosted the 2008 Beijing Olympics, as well as at the 2012 London Games and the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games.
She also won three medals when China hosted the Asian Games in Guangzhou in 2010 — gold in singles and the team event and bronze in doubles.
While not officially retired, she played her last match in Qatar in February 2020.
“She’s definitely at the back end of her career,” Siegemund said. “When we played in 2019 she was going more into doubles and wasn’t really communicating clearly what her priorities are, because I think she didn’t know herself.”