What Peng Shuai reveals about one-party rule
When a tennis star accuses a grandee of assault, China has no answer
IT IS HARD to see a good ending to the story of Peng Shuai, a Chinese tennis champion who on November 2nd accused a former Communist Party grandee more than twice her age of subjecting her to a coercive sexual relationship. In theory, the party deplores all immorality in office. When it suits the regime, propaganda outlets denounce purged officials for keeping mistresses as well as taking bribes. But China’s rulers care still more about asserting their authority, and their exclusive right to decide which rotten corners of their system to expose and which to keep hidden.
This article appeared in the China section of the print edition under the headline “The silencing of a tennis star”
From the November 27th 2021 edition
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