They denounce the Chinese vice premier: Female athletes are braver and more consistent than Disney | Public Awareness Weekly
Global Politics, by Jorge López Portillo Basave //
Despite the fact that most companies, governments and of course world-famous athletes have decided to kneel before China, the World Association of Women Tennis Players -WTA- announced last Friday that it is withdrawing from tournaments international organizations in that country in protest against the government's silence and the alleged oppression against the local tennis player Peng Shuai, who a month ago reportedly denounced the Chinese vice-premier Zhang Gaoli.
The tennis player would have accused Zhang of having sexually abused her, but after the complaint she was withdrawn from the media and practically disappeared. Recently, he reappeared in videos that seem more like part of a scene planned by the authorities to pretend that everything is fine, but the government did not give any explanation nor has it been sanctioned or is there any investigation against the alleged sexual abuser or loved one. address the issue in public about both the alleged attack and the alleged crackdown.
In a coherent and supportive movement, the WTA did what was not seen for years, which is to demand justice from the country that today already seems to be the most politically and economically powerful in the world.
As we know when one of the NBA executives dared to criticize the Beijing government over the Hong Kong issue in 2020, China threatened to ban NBA teams and athletes from promoting their products and teams in that market, which immediately caused other managers and some very famous players like LeBron James to scold their colleagues for daring to criticize the communist government.
Of course, a powerful gentleman is a gift of money and since global companies and US players earn millions of dollars in China, they prefer to party in peace, even despite sacrificing their supposed human values that they boast so much in the comfort of their country where saying something against their countrymen does not cause them any problem. That is to say, they are cheap humanitarians but ambitious at heart.
The Association of Tennis Players (men's) has ruled in favor of the Chinese tennis player but has fallen short in following her female simile.
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All of this is taking place on the eve of the Winter Olympic Games to be held in China in early 2021. Several US politicians have called for the withdrawal of US participation due to human rights violations attributed to the policy of the communist party but the big corporations and the parties in power have preferred to make remarks in a very modest tone, almost inaudible so as not to offend or provoke the wrath of the powerful Xi Jinping.
The WTA has annual revenues in China in excess of $100 million, but their support and consistency are much more than that. Will others join? Or that China makes an act of contrition and admits its mistakes in this case and in others such as those of Muslims subjected to re-education camps. We'll see, but for today congratulations to this organization, which also denounced the censorship of social networks in China and in other countries who have eliminated the video of Peng Shuai in which on November 2 he made public his terrible experience. But of course the internet giants don't want to affect their business in China either. The tennis player Peng, who was also number one in the world a couple of years ago, seems to have managed to get at least one world organization to put on their pants or skirts and apply the same rule in China that they claim to demand in other countries.
CUT FROM THE SAME SCISSORS
If LeBron James knelt so as not to offend China in 2020, it can be said that he is not alone, in fact last week the famous corporate of illusions and dreams decided to eliminate the episode of the Simpsons series in The one that criticized China for the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989.
It is sad to see that for a few cents or millions the so-called most developed nations and their business leaders, athletes and filmmakers are willing to remain silent, even to censor themselves as long as they do not offend or run the risk of losing part of the commercial pie in China.
KEEP SILENT
From US VP Kamala Harris to the powerful Angela Merkel, they haven't said a word about the tennis player's near disappearance and the removal of her accusation from social media.