The Guardian - China-Unanswered questions over Peng Shuai show power of sport has its limits Sean Ingle
September 25, 2023 5 min 953 words
这篇报道让人深感担忧，因为它突显出体育作为变革催化剂的力量在某些情况下有其局限性。彭帅的失踪问题一直没有得到满意的答案，这引发了对压迫性政权的担忧，这些政权似乎掌握了一切。 在去年的冬季奥运会期间，我们曾短暂地看到了彭帅，但这一切来得突然，也没有给人任何解释。她突然出现在大跃台滑雪比赛现场，观看了美籍华裔巨星艾琳·古飞翔并夺得金牌。一度，我在新闻席上怀疑那是否真的是彭帅，但国际奥委会主席托马斯·巴赫和一群摄影师的出现解开了这个谜团。很快，这位前温网双打冠军的形象传遍全球，然后她又消失了，再次成为了一个谜。 与此同时，18岁的古以老练的方式回应了众多地缘政治问题，就像一个经验丰富的联合国老手，承诺体育是一种“善的力量”。当被问及彭帅时，她没有犹豫。“我真的很感激她现在很快乐、很健康，又回来做自己的事情，”她微笑着说。然而，时间证明这一说法与现实脱节。彭帅自从在比赛中告诉《队报》她的社交媒体帖子指控前中国副总理张高丽性侵是“一场巨大的误会”以来，几乎没有再次出现或发声。在一次受控的采访中，彭帅还声称她已删除了她的社交媒体帖子，但没有透露更多原因，只是说：“因为我想这样做。”这一切都令人不满意。但国际奥委会可以至少称其软实力外交在某种程度上取得了一些成果，因为彭帅至少还活着。 在过去的一周里，女子网球巡回赛(WTA)自2019年以来首次重返中国，持支票状，却低着头，这让我一直在思考冬季奥运会上的那些场景以及对体育的更广泛教训。2020年，WTA承诺除非能直接联系到彭帅并进行“全面、公正和透明”的调查，否则将不再进入中国。然后，冷酷的经济因素介入。2020年，它亏损了1650万美元；2021年，亏损了1510万美元。在2019年，也就是最后一年有中国比赛的时候，亏损仅为100万美元。人权组织感到愤慨。我与体育界的人士交谈后，他们对WTA的倒退也大多不满，有些人还指出，WTA上个月在纽约举办的50周年庆典上大肆宣扬女性赋权和平等。 当我向WTA索要对这些批评的回应时，他们提供了一份充满平庸和陈词滥调的声明：“我们很高兴重返中国，再次举办中国秋季巡回赛，这是我们的球员在中国球迷面前参加高级比赛并支持众多长期忠实的巡回赛合作伙伴的机会。”或许唯一缺少的是一枚白旗表情符号。然而，这个故事超越了WTA，尽管他们在倒退时至少表现出了最初的立场。它也提醒我们，体育和压迫性政权之间真正的权力在哪里。 即使现在，一些人仍然怀有几乎是狂热的信仰，认为他们可以改变国家的命运。或许塞巴斯蒂安·科恩在2019年多哈世界田径锦标赛上在卡塔尔的人权问题上的回应表达得最好。他说，体育有唯一的力量可以“照亮问题”，是“我们最好的外交手段”。然而，这一类似的信息也在2008年中国举办奥运会前由当时的国际奥委会主席雅克·罗格传达出来。“拨给中国比赛的代表曾说，我随便引用一下，因为我不是背诵的，授予比赛将推进中国的社会议程，包括人权，”他坚称。这也只不过是一句空话。 当然，政权有时会变得更加自由，法律可能会放宽，一些微小的自由可能会被赋予。然而，关键点在于，一切都是按照他们的条款进行的，而不是体育的。正如专门研
Where is Peng Shuai? For a brief moment during the Winter Olympics last year I had an answer, of sorts, to that deeply troubling question. For there she was, suddenly and without warning, at the Big Air final, watching the Chinese‑American superstar Eileen Gu soar and spin through the Beijing sky to take gold.
At first I wondered from my vantage point in the press stands whether it was really Peng. The presence of the International Olympic Committee president, Thomas Bach, and a swarm of photographers, answered that. Soon images of the former Wimbledon doubles champion, who had not been seen in public for months amid concern for her wellbeing, went global. And then she was gone. A ghost in the machine again.
Meanwhile the 18-year-old Gu was fending off numerous geopolitical questions with the skill of a grizzled UN veteran, while promising that sport was a “force for good”. And when she was asked about Peng, she didn’t miss a beat. “I am really grateful that she is happy and healthy and out here doing her thing again,” she said, smiling.
Time has shown that statement to be detached from reality. Peng has barely been seen or heard from since she told L’Équipe at the Games that a social media post accusing Zhang Gaoli, the former Chinese vice-premier, of sexual assault had been “an enormous misunderstanding”.
In what was a controlled interview, Peng also claimed she had erased her social media post but didn’t give her reasons beyond saying: “Because I wanted to.” It all felt very unsatisfactory. But the IOC, which had helped to set up the interview and photo opportunity, could at least point to its soft-power diplomacy as yielding some sort of result. Peng was, at least, alive.
I have been thinking about those scenes at the Winter Olympics – and the wider lessons for sport – a lot during the past week, after the women’s tennis tour (WTA) returned to China for the first time since 2019 with its chequebook out and its tail between its legs.
In 2020 it had promised to stay out of China unless it was able to contact Peng directly and conduct a “full, fair and transparent” investigation of her initial claims. Then cold, hard economics intervened. In 2020 it lost $16.5m; in 2021, $15.1m. In 2019, the last year with Chinese events, the losses were just $1m.
Human rights groups were appalled. Those in sport I spoke to were largely unimpressed at the U‑turn, too, with some also noting how the WTA had made a big dance about female empowerment and equality at its 50th birthday celebrations in New York last month.
When I asked the WTA for its response to the criticisms, it offered a statement rich in blandness and platitudes. “We are excited to return to China and once again stage the fall China swing,” it read. “An opportunity for our players to compete in premium tournaments in front of our China fans and support our many longstanding and loyal tournament partners.”
Perhaps all that was missing was a white flag emoji. However, this is a story that goes beyond the WTA, which, for all its backtracking, at least made an initial stand. It also gives us a stark reminder of where the power really lies between sport and oppressive regimes.
Even now some in sport maintain an almost evangelical belief that they can change countries for the better. Perhaps Sebastian Coe put it best when tackled over human rights in Qatar at the 2019 World Athletics Championships in Doha. Sport, he replied, has a unique power to “shine the spotlight on issues” and is the “best diplomat we have”.
A similar message was conveyed by the then IOC president Jacques Rogge before the Olympics were staged in China in 2008. “The representatives of the bid have said, and I quote freely because I do not know it by heart, that awarding the Games to China would advance the social agenda of China, including human rights,” he insisted. So much for that, too.
Of course, regimes will sometimes become more liberal. Laws may be loosened, tiny freedoms granted. The crucial point, though, is that it is always on their terms, not sport’s. As Professor Simon Chadwick, who specialises in the geopolitics and marketing of sport, puts it: “It is difficult to identify a country anywhere in the world that has fundamentally and sustainably changed for the better as a result of sport.”
For leaders of such countries, hosting sporting events is about prestige, power, tourism, the economy and, yes, sportswashing. Saudi Arabia’s leader, Mohammed bin Salman, put it bluntly last week: “If sport washing is going to increase my GDP by way of 1%, then I will continue doing sport washing.”
Because of China’s oppressive and opaque political system we don’t know much about Peng’s situation. This year the WTA said it had been in touch with people close to her and was assured she is living safely with her family. But no one has been able to add detail to that vague and insubstantial claim.
In the meantime there is a sense that tennis is trying to move on, tune out and ignore the gigantic elephant in the room. The WTA tour has already moved from Guangzhou to Ningbo, while on Saturday the China Open begins in Beijing. That, incidentally, is where the country’s most famous tennis player lives. Just don’t expect anyone there to ask #WhereisPengShuai?