Former US Open semi-finalist Peng Shuai accuses former Chinese vice premier of sexual assault

Peng Shuai, a top Chinese tennis star has publicly accused former Chinese vice premier, Zhang Gaoli of sexual assault.

She made the allegations in a post on Tuesday night on her verified Weibo account (China's version of Twitter) where she described how she was assaulted in 2018 by Zhang who coerced her into having sex with him.

According to Peng, an on and off relationship then began between the 35-year-old and the former Politburo Standing Committee member which according to the social media post (below) ended a few days ago with the post saying they had a row in an affair which she detailed began a decade ago.

She said that Zhang was afraid that she was recording their conversations but according to Peng, she never collected evidence of this affair.

These posts were swiftly removed though due to violating Weibo's community rules but in a further attempt to seemingly censor the allegations, searches of her name and even the word tennis were blocked.

Zhang himself was party boss of the port city of Tianjin for five years before a stint on the Politburo Standing Committee , while for Peng, she has won 23 doubles and two singles tournaments in her WTA career.

This includes two Grand Slam doubles wins at the French Open and Wimbledon.

She was ranked as high as 14th back in 2011 reaching the US Open semi-finals in 2014 but has not played on tour since prior to the pandemic in 2020 where she reached the semi-finals in Doha.