“I applaud Steve Simon and the WTA leadership for taking a strong stand on defending human rights in China and around the world,” said Billie Jean King. “The WTA is on the right side of history in supporting our players. This is another reason why women’s tennis is the leader in women’s sports.”
Novak Djokovic, World No 1 and cofounder of the Professional Tennis Players Association, said he fully supported the WTA’s stance, and everyone including the Professional Tennis Players Association (PTPA) and the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) was “asking for clarity on what is going on”.
“We don’t have enough information and I think it’s a very bold, very courageous stance from WTA,” he told reporters.
Joe Pompliano thinks the WTA will lose 1/3 of their revenue [2].
[2]: https://twitter.com/JoePompliano/status/1466142522628059144
[1]: https://olympics.com/ioc/news/ioc-statement-on-the-situation...
IOC is the only entity outside China which contacted Peng Shuai, whose external communication is under heavy control by China, so it may be harder for others to see what is going on.
Also, WTA is calling for an investigation into a #MeToo, which arguably falls under human rights.
Their leaders don’t see anything other than the number of humans they can get in front of their movies, and 1.4 billion people is a whole lot more than 300ish million.
> No Chinese woman can ever be the best tennis player anymore.
China already struggles mightily in both men's and women's tennis. They don't have any player in men's or women's that cracks the top 100.
It would be great if the internet could somehow make this a fantastic decision for WTA.
Ideas?
This is sadly something you find everywhere in this world, but at least, in some countries, women can hope to get the justice to investigate fairly.
Being a woman in this world is not easy.
But while "silencing" is happening throughout the world for victims of sexual crimes (and we should work to stop this), what's happening to Peng is probably unrelated to the type of crime, but rather about who the perpetrator was (a highly-ranked CCP official).
She'd likely see the same fate if she talked about witnessing him do any other crime: it's most telling that not even World-known public figures like Peng can be considered safe from such intimidation.
In general WTA setting out terms to nation state is a very absurd situation. If the situation was reversed, American government would care zero bit to appear accountable to any foreign or international organisation.
But what is surprising is how WTAs take on this matter is taken as is without necessary skepticism. It is rather clear that WTA don't have first hand information on the subject to take a considered judgement.
Where there is a need for circumspection, and for nuance , WTA has jumped into the fray speaking of absolutes.
Has WTA made good faith attempts like despatching its delegates to China and understand first hand the situation?
Frankly if you examine the available details, WTA only has a flimsy argument.
And also imagine what could happen next. It could be very much possible for the Chinese to organise a video call for example with Boris Johnson, in which Peng will castigate WTA for invading her privacy, and not respecting her need to stay away from public gaze, etc..
If so then what will WTA do?
It's well-known that CCP leaders are untouchable in China just like Kim is untouchable in NK.
On the other hand if you look a bit to our politics, how affected was Trump by the rape/harrasment accusations? Certainly a big part of population would still vote for him even if the rape would be recorded. I don't defend China or CCP but we should put things in perspective.
The most disturbing issue in China I believe is the censorship and persecution of the victims.
There doesn't need to be a popular riseup. Zhang Gaoli's enemies in the CCP now have some ammunition they can use to convince the people in the CCP who don't give a shit about Zhang Whoever that it's best to get rid of him. Then it's all up to how many true allies he has. (Probably not many, as a has-been.)
I've seen a lot of reporting on Peng Shuai's public appearances or lack thereof, but little on Zhang Gaoli's whereabouts. My guess is that he's under house arrest while the party leadership decides how to deal with him.
No CCP leader is untouchable; they're all reliant on the support of their allies to remain in power. If that support ever runs out, they quickly find themselves stripped of all titles, at the wrong end of a corruption investigation and risk getting executed in the end.
Having her "disappeared" by the government is a step far beyond what usually happens in the West, but suppression of the victims in some way is still an extremely big problem and is what the whole "#metoo" movement was about.
Biden would be a better example. Biden made a point to market himself as a feminist and someone who "believes women [accusers]." Trump did not.
People do not rise for entertainment, but only when they are seriously affected in their lives. Or when unfairness accumulates enough that they had enough — this will happen at some point in China, if they don't tone it down. But protesting today (and in the past) is a form of luxury: those most in need to protest their treatment usually have the smallest possibility of effectively running one (they are in a constant race to survive).
It's no accident that even throughout history, many protests and revolutions were led/supported by someone from the "elite" (rich, well-educated, plenty of spare time).
CCP has built a dissent management stack all the way from early indoctrination to continuous surveillance to Tiananmen style intervention/massacre if the need ever arises. Dissent will be crushed before it becomes a movement.
We're looking at one of the greatest threats to our freedom ever; this time they have nukes, reliable delivery mechanisms and a flourishing economy (which the Soviets lacked).
Because now the WTA, by no means a small sports organisation, did what the IOC, FIFA, NBA, film studios,... didn't have the courage to do. And these orgs now don't have any excuse of doing nothing about those human rights abuses.
Money still exists. Real WTA test is to see if they continue suspension once post covid PRC opens up. PRC already cancelled WTA events prior to suspension, likely past 2022 pending on how covid pans out. Short term this is cost free marketting WTA. IOC, FIFA, NBA, film studios still has costs, and they still choose China.
Step 2: Withdraw all Chinese tennis players. Complain how WTA decision is hurting sport and this issue should not be politicized.
Step 3: Ban broadcasting of all women tennis tournaments.
Step 4: Massive disinformation campaign against WTA.
Step 5: Push the other organizations that are under CCP's thumb to pressure WTA to back off.
TIL: tennis balls are bigger than basket balls.
I know there are quite a few here who also hang on other parts of the internet and who knows how to generate memes.
Anyone up for the challenge?
Witness NBA-Houston Rockets case which caused Houston Rockets games to be blacked out for 15 months even though Morey moved on from Houston late in 2020 after tweeting in support of Hong Kong protests early in the year.
What did CCTV do? Ban 76ers NBA games who are the current employer for Morey.
But they would probably mention that because this has become such a hot topic: "investigations into Peng's accusations are ongoing" should not be such a hard thing to mutter out.
But even if they did do something proper yet invisible, the obvious pressure on Peng to withdraw her claims and act as if nothing happened are alarming. As is the attempt to rewrite history of the case. They did not even make her say something like "I was under duress/drunk/whatever" or "somebody else stole my phone and wrote that": there is obviously some respect for her public stature, but the main concern is with "health of the nation". By making it all a lie.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/7/2/in-its-100-years-who...
Scandals can be survived even in democracy, for sure (Dick Cheney shot a man, Ted Kennedy killed a woman, etc etc), but the accused has to work hard for it. And you could say Trump didn't really survive them, since he was voted out at the first chance.
The communist is on the other hand … could she be the exception not coming out as the bad ladies to apology, to be suicide or what.
WTA seems to be looking for reasons to burn bridges, rather.
Point is WTA needs to make abundantly clear the steps they have taken of their own accord to address their concerns rather than focusing mostly on casting aspersions.
Her handlers had her do a video call with the IOC president, to placate international demands while only letting her contact someone who has a financial interest in sweeping this under the rug.
The proof-of-life issued by the Chinese government also shows that they're aware of these concerns.
There's plenty of political work after his presidency too: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Clinton#Post-presidency_(...
bizarre thing to say given the story is literally about a former WTA #1 Chinese female doubles tennis player.
Their economy is mostly based on inequality between the West and the rest (and internally, between poor regions and cities): as they are quickly catching up in salaries and standard of living, it will level off (sure, their domestic market is huge as well and gives them another few years or a decade).
I'd instead say that media-manipulation based on scientific exploration of the human mind and behaviour is a bigger threat to our freedom: we won't even know that we've lost it. Still, even in that case, I am sure enough people will see what's going on, and will be able to convince others of the bad sides of it.
Extremely naive. There are plenty of dirt rich countries, countries way more well off than USA which are still completely totalitarian.
Basically, none of that convinces me that Chinese economy will continue to see exponential growth as their salaries get closer to Western salaries, and that it will not run into stagnation at that point. This was just a retort to a claim that China will continue to have prospering economy in foreseeable future which allows them to be more formidable and threatening to our freedom.
I am totally not an expert though, but country wealth (esp not those countries driven by natural resource exports) is not a good indicator of future economic performance: sure, it allows a country to pivot and prepare for the change better.
If you look at median incomes, UAE, and Saudis are of course ones with higher per capital income, but you see plenty of other quite prosperous nations in the club. When oil was above $100, and Russians were swimming in USDs, they were even less proclived to go to the streets.
Suharto, Marcos, and a few Latin American dictators equally had their best years when relative prosperity kept populace pliant, even if there was an apparent stagnation.
Popular revolts really only happen at the furthest extremes of the spectrum of prosperity, or rapid movement in it. Even just "not dying from hunger" level of prosperity is enough for dictatorships to survive with ease.
FWIW, I did not make an argument that economic prosperity or equalisation will bring them to streets at all, but that:
1. Their current "flourishing economy" is not a reason to consider China as "one of the greatest threats of our freedom ever", and
2. How "flourishing" Chinese economy is will change relatively quickly (say in the next 10-30 years) as their median salaries approach those of who they export most to (if that's Japan, Korea or Taiwan, then their salaries instead of US ones).
I would even say that this situation with WTA shows that 1 is exactly not the case: people in charge of large organisations (like Simon) have learned from how eg. NBA handled the case and the flak in the media they received, so now they are being more protective of democratic values (or maybe their image, but regardless) instead of their business interests.
FTR, this was part of the comment I was replying to where economy is highlighted as a big contributor to them being a great threat to "our freedom":
> We're looking at one of the greatest threats to our freedom ever; this time they have nukes, reliable delivery mechanisms and a flourishing economy (which the Soviets lacked).