IOC chief Thomas Bach joins China’s cover-up of sex abuse
The IOC’s account of its 30-minute video call with tennis star Peng Shuai was a triumph for Beijing.
The dinosaurs of the International Olympic Committee say they don’t do “politics”.
So why has IOC president Thomas Bach helped Beijing cover up a sexual assault complaint linked to China’s politburo?
As Women’s Tennis Association chief executive Steve Simon demonstrates, another approach was possible.
Mr Simon’s WTA continues to take seriously the complaint made by Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai, who has said she was forced into having sex with Zhang Gaoli, a former member of the Chinese Communist Party’s powerful Politburo Standing committee.
“This is bigger than the business,” says Mr Simon.
Mr Bach either doesn’t agree, or else doesn’t understand what a useful idiot he made of himself.
The IOC’s account of its 30- minute video call with Peng was a triumph for Beijing. It could have been written by the party’s propaganda department.
“She explained that she is safe and well, living at her home in Beijing, but would like to have her privacy respected at this time,” the IOC said in its statement.
“That is why she prefers to spend her time with friends and family right now.”
It was published hours after the Global Times editor-in-chief Hu Xijin circulated yet another proof-of-life video of Peng on Twitter, a platform banned in China.
“Can any girl fake such a sunny smile under pressure?” asked Mr Hu. “Those who suspect Peng Shuai is under duress, how dark they must be inside. There must be many, many forced political performances in their countries.”
Within hours, the IOC revealed that Mr Bach and the chair of the IOC athletes’ commission, Emma Terho, had been enlisted in a political performance with Peng, who beamed in from Beijing, surrounded by fluffy toys.
The two-time Grand Slam doubles winner speaks English, but a “friend” assisted her in the conversation, according to an IOC official. Also joining Peng, Mr Bach and Mr Terho on the call was Li Lingwei, the IOC member in China and a member of the Communist Party.
Ms Li was also, from 2013 to 2018, a member of the standing committee of the National People’s Congress, China’s rubber stamp parliament.
The idea that Peng could talk to Mr Bach freely in front of Ms Li – and whoever else Beijing had listening in on the call – is ludicrous.
But Mr Bach doesn’t seem concerned. He even invited Peng to have dinner with him in Beijing in January ahead of the Beijing Winter Olympics. Also coming to dinner is comrade Li.
There was no mention of an invitation for comrade Zhang, but perhaps Mr Bach will catch up with him separately.
After all, Mr Zhang was the head of the party’s leading group that oversaw the preparations for its 2022 Winter Olympic Games, a highly political event in China. The Women’s Tennis Association, in contrast to the IOC, is taking Peng’s complaint seriously.
“It was good to see Peng Shuai in recent videos, but they don’t alleviate or address the WTA’s concern about her wellbeing and ability to communicate without censorship or coercion,” said a spokesperson for the WTA after the IOC video chat.
“This video does not change our call for a full, fair and transparent investigation, without censorship, into her allegation of sexual assault, which is the issue that gave rise to our concern.”
Before it was scrubbed off China’s heavily censored internet, Peng published a disturbing account of her relationship with Mr Zhang, a man who – until three years ago – was one of the seven most powerful political figures in the Communist Party state.
“I did not consent at first that afternoon. I cried the whole time,” Peng wrote in a piece addressed to Mr Zhang.
“Even if I’m like an egg cracking against a rock or a moth to the flame, bent on self-destruction, I will speak the truth about you and me,” she wrote.
The IOC cannot wave a wand and end China’s Leninist political system, which will always protect the patriarchs that run it.
But Mr Bach didn’t have to help Beijing snuff out the voice of a former Olympian by performing in party-orchestrated theatre.
He chose to do it, exposing the hollowness of his claim that the IOC doesn’t do politics.
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