Tennis Australia backflips on Peng Shuai T-shirts

Activists celebrated a capitulation from Tennis Australia on Tuesday to allow fans to wear ‘Where is Peng Shuai?’ T-shirts at Melbourne Park.

A spectator wears a "Where is Peng Shuai?" T-shirt at Melbourne Park on Tuesday. Picture: AFP

Activists in “Where is Peng Shuai?” T-shirts triumphantly walked through turnstiles at the Australian Open on Tuesday afternoon after a dramatic about-face by Tennis Australia chief Craig Tiley to lift the ban on the messages of support for the missing Chinese tennis star.

After days of Tennis Australia being accused of capitulating to China, a group of seven self-­described human rights activists and Democratic Alliance Party volunteers slipped on the white shirts in the blistering heat at Melbourne Park following comments from Mr Tiley that said fans would be allowed to watch the tennis unhindered.

“If you come in and you have a T-shirt on and your T-shirt says ‘Where is Peng Shuai?’ and you have a personal view on it, that is fine,’’ he said in a statement.

Placards and signs in support of the doubles tennis star will not be allowed, and Mr Tiley said there would be zero tolerance for disruptive behaviour. “If they are bringing a banner in … and coming in a mob to just distract and disrupt fans, they won’t be allowed,” he said.

The about-face came after Defence Minister Peter Dutton said TA should advocate more for answers on what happened to Peng Shuai, after T-shirts with mess­ages of support for her were confiscated from ­activists at Melbourne Park on Friday.

“It’s deeply concerning. And I think we should be speaking up about these issues,” Mr Dutton told Sky News. “It’s a human rights issue. And it’s frankly about the treatment of a young woman who is claiming she has been sexually assaulted.

“I’d encourage not just celebrities but tennis organisations, including Tennis Australia – WTA’s been very good in relation to it – but other governments and other bodies, we need to speak as one voice on this.”

Peng Shuai posted allegations on Chinese social media platform Weibo in November last year that she had been sexually assaulted by Chinese official Zhang Gaoli.

The message was removed within minutes and Peng disappeared from public view for weeks, resurfacing in an interview with Singaporean Chinese-­language news outlet Lianhe Zaobao to deny making the allegations. Concerns remain for her wellbeing.

Senate hopeful and “Where is Peng Shuai?” activist Drew Pavlou welcomed the decision to allow spectators to wear the T-shirts, vowing to distribute 1000 of them at the women’s final on Saturday.

“We’re speaking out for women’s rights and Tennis Australia has capitulated because they know they look so, so bad,” he said. “They look absolutely terrible (to) the entire world in recent days. And it’s incredible, because we did it with two T-shirts, and a GoFundMe link.”

The about-face will mean pressure will continue to mount on authorities to reveal what happened to the Chinese tennis player, Mr Pavlou said.

“I’m very happy because this is the first time in months that Peng Shuai has been in the media in a big way,” he said.

“Unfortunately, her story dropped off a bit. As a consequence of reporting sexual assault … she’s basically been scrubbed from the internet.

“We hope thousands of people will wear these shirts in the final and hopefully with the huge broadcast … deals that Tennis Australia has in China, that sea of shirts will be seen in China.”

Max Mok, the activist who filmed an incident on Friday where security confiscated a young woman’s “Where is Peng Shuai?” T-shirt because it was political, said it was a human rights issue.

“It’s about a missing woman. It’s about a potential rape case. And nobody’s looking into it … It’s a human rights issue.”