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Opinion | How Peng Shuai’s fate underscores China’s global legitimacy challenge
- Despite its vaccine donations and firm commitments to reduce carbon emissions, China is still struggling to win the world’s trust
- As it takes on more global responsibilities, it must overcome the scepticism and show it is a responsible partner
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Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai’s recent appearances will not convince some that she is safe and free. She showed up at a tennis event, held a Zoom call with the International Olympic Committee chairman and was featured in a restaurant rendezvous. All this led to more questions over whether she did so freely.
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Let’s imagine for a moment that Peng is happy and free. How could she express it so the rest of the world would believe it?
She could set up a Twitter account and tweet “Hey, I am safe and free”, but some would still challenge that it was not written by her or of her free will. She could initiate a call with World Tennis Association chairman Steve Simon, but there would be questions about whether she made the call freely.
As frustrated as the West is, China probably feels the same. Distrust of the Chinese government has increasingly become entrenched. All our intellectual reasoning is instinctively led by our moral compass.
I do not want to speculate on Peng’s freedom. If she is the victim of a Chinese “House of Cards”, think of the many more Chinese women who are at risk but don’t dare say so. As a Chinese woman, I sympathise with Peng. Her safety and freedom are causing grave concern across the world, and rightly so.
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WTA suspends tournaments in China over Beijing’s ‘silencing’ of tennis pro Peng Shuai
WTA suspends tournaments in China over Beijing’s ‘silencing’ of tennis pro Peng Shuai
Beyond Peng’s freedom, China faces another crisis – a global crisis of trust. China has fallen into what is known as a “Tacitus trap”. The term, named for the Roman historian, describes the fate of a government that has lost the public’s trust and is hated no matter what it does.
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