Then let them leave. Tennis is a rich people's sport in China anyway, like golf. I see no reason for the public to care much about it.
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- Thread starter bd popeye
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Then let them leave. Tennis is a rich people's sport in China anyway, like golf. I see no reason for the public to care much about it.
Western institution will obviously take a stance on such thing; how strong or symbolic depends on their respective relationship with China, see the incident involving former Houston Rockets GM's twitter post re Hong Kong protest two years ago. Chinese government is not going to give in to such demand from WTA. So WTA can f*** off.
But here is the problem with current Chinese political culture: Peng is obviously asked to not speak to the press or publicly comment on the affairs anymore (She is NOT under house arrest). I don't think Peng has a case in court against Zhang nor is she interested in pursuing that route. She just wanted to make a scene for Zhang by going public with such an affair. Does Chinese authority have the right to shut her up simply because it concerns about a former or current high-ranking official? If they don't shut her off, they will be under public pressure to investigate the affair. And if they investigate the affair under public pressure, it would set a precedent, which the current political culture or system can not handle. So this is always going to be Achilles heel of Chinese political system.
You don't expect them to come out and explicitly state that they won't investigate earlier corruption, do you? There were corruption everywhere in the entire system, prioritizing investigating new corruption means old corruption won't get investigated, which is not to say they will be absolved.
Why can't the political culture and system unable to handle such move?
There is or was a claim of serious wrongdoing, that has little chance of being proved or disproved. And there is the affair, which is serious enough to tank one's promotion but not serious enough to warrant public disciplinary action ON ITS OWN in the absence of an actual trade of political power for sex (权色交易). I don't think Peng claimed Zhang did enough for her to amount to serious corruption. Investigating this will produce nothing more a public spectacle. Chinese political culture is averse to public spectacles. Setting a precedent will also open a new front for political fighting, which is in no one's interests.
The problem with this entire episode is of transparency and Domino effect. Nobody would've cared about this allegation had Peng not suddenly disappeared from public eye. No social media post, no statement and then a supposed email which was a botch attempt by Chinese Media. Lack of transparency will always hurt China in these situations.
All China had to do was declare that they will investigate the allegations. After that the news would've disappeared from public attention. But by completely blacking out the accuser you're only going to make things difficult for yourself.
All China had to do was declare that they will investigate the allegations. After that the news would've disappeared from public attention. But by completely blacking out the accuser you're only going to make things difficult for yourself.
antiterror13
Brigadier
How about Japan? Japan has a huge strategic oil reserve as well, almost as much as China has
Or just let it be in the open. Two adults had an affair, everybody already knows about it. Is it really that damaging to China? Hiding it or suppressing Peng is not going to make the situation go away. It adds to the fear/impression that if you do anything wrong against the government in China, you can “disappear”.
The problem isn’t public pressure but the low quality claims. The problem is that she said she had no evidence so investigation would probably have to rely on voluntary confession. It doesn’t make sense to open an investigation at least publicly whenever someone makes a claim without evidence.
If her claims were false then it would be warranted or at least guilty of slandering.