The Peng Shuai Affair

(I should add that in these "Svengali"-style arrangements, the man (or men) still expect to recoup their financial outlay should the player become a high-earning touring pro. It's just that they also expect these "ancilliary services" from the player, as a recognition of their generosity and beneficence in agreeing to fund the player in the first place....)
 
Reading her original message, she sounds (and I'm trying to be delicate here) mentally ill.

She might be in hospital or in care of some sort.
 
Orphia Nay said:
Reading her original message, she sounds (and I'm trying to be delicate here) mentally ill.

She might be in hospital or in care of some sort.
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If I were the Chinese government, this is exactly the kind of counter propaganda I would commission to give plausible deniability to my shenanigans.

But I wouldn't have to commission any such thing, since useful idiots would carry this water for me without question anyway
 
theprestige said:
If I were the Chinese government, this is exactly the kind of counter propaganda I would commission to give plausible deniability to my shenanigans.

But I wouldn't have to commission any such thing, since useful idiots would carry this water for me without question anyway
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The Chinese government made her write or they wrote the original message, then removed it?

What an imaginative conspiracy.
 
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Orphia Nay said:
Reading her original message, she sounds (and I'm trying to be delicate here) mentally ill.

She might be in hospital or in care of some sort.
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I agree she sounds messed up, at least according to the english translation. But I believe her, and I don't believe the Chinese command structure is acting out of any concern for her welfare. Quite the contrary.
 
trustbutverify said:
I agree she sounds messed up, at least according to the english translation. But I believe her, and I don't believe the Chinese command structure is acting out of any concern for her welfare. Quite the contrary.
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Perhaps they're acting more out of a sense of pride for their country and they are taking care of her in some way so she doesn't cause them to lose face.
 
Orphia Nay said:
Reading her original message, she sounds (and I'm trying to be delicate here) mentally ill.

She might be in hospital or in care of some sort.
Click to expand...

A couple things to consider:
- Non-native English speakers often phrase things differently than a native English speaker would, so their statements can appear strange to a native English speaker.
- The statement doesn't have the errors typically made by Chinese who are writing or speaking in English, leaving open the possibility that someone else translated her statement from Chinese to English.
 
Why this selfie from Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai, featuring a photo of Winnie the Pooh in the background, is causing a stir online

A photo of Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai posted on Twitter by a Chinese state media reporter has been fuelling online debate.

On Saturday, Shen Shiwei from CGTN, the English-language arm of China Central Television, posted photos of a seemingly happy Ms Peng on Twitter, which is officially blocked in China.

The state TV employee wrote the photos were posted on Ms Peng's WeChat account with the comment, "Happy Weekend".

They were the first photos of Ms Peng since her apparent disappearance earlier this month, after she publicly accused a former high ranking Communist Party leader of sexual assault.

While some have debated whether or not the photos are proof that she is safe, others have speculated on the significance of one image in particular that includes a photo frame in the background featuring Winnie the Pooh.

Winnie the Pooh has special meaning in China, where the character has been used as a mocking stand-in for President Xi Jinping...
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Orphia Nay said:
What do you think they're doing to her?
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At the very least they're controlling her access to the rest of the world, and controlling the world's access to her. Which is already far beyond the pale, in my opinion. Remember when gymnast Rachael Denhollander accused Dr Nassar of sexual abuse, so the US government sequestered her for her own wellbeing and out of a sense of national pride? Of course you don't remember that, because the US government doesn't do that sort of thing. The Chinese government does, though.
 
Orphia Nay said:
What do you think they're doing to her?
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I think they tried to disappear her and any mention of her until world pressure forced them to fake a retraction and release carefully staged photographs. When that went over like a lead balloon, they made her available for a 30 minute interview with their IOC business partners, while making it perfectly clear to her what she was expected to say.
 
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trustbutverify said:
I think they tried to disappear her and any mention of her until world pressure forced them to fake a retraction and release carefully staged photographs. When that went over like a lead balloon, they made her available for a 30 minute interview with their IOC business partners, while they made it perfectly clear to her would she was expected to say.
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I agree.

I think they also bargained upon the WTA Tour - which is also in business with PRC to a significant extent (though not as much as the IoC wrt Beijing 2022) - would be more conciliatory than it's turned out to be. I think they thought they'd be able to style things out while "business as usual" pushed the matter further back out of public/political consciousness.

So I suspect they've been shaken by the WTA Tour taking such a hard stance, and so quickly. As I said before, I think the most likely outcome from here is that they'll do a bit more drip-feeding of "nothing to see here" information for the next week or two, while they focus internally on, uhm, "reprogramming" Peng to do and say the things they want her to do/say. Then comes the grand reveal, and (say) the 60-Minutes interview.
 
theprestige said:
At the very least they're controlling her access to the rest of the world, and controlling the world's access to her. Which is already far beyond the pale, in my opinion. Remember when gymnast Rachael Denhollander accused Dr Nassar of sexual abuse, so the US government sequestered her for her own wellbeing and out of a sense of national pride? Of course you don't remember that, because the US government doesn't do that sort of thing. The Chinese government does, though.
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What does that have to do with how she sounds in her original post?
 
Orphia Nay said:
What does that have to do with how she sounds in her original post?
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I answered the question you asked. All I really know is that they're sequestering her. Hopefully that's the extent of it, but that's already bad enough, in my opinion.

As to how she sounds, it's a translation. I don't put much stock in how someone sounds in a translation.
 
theprestige said:
I answered the question you asked. All I really know is that they're sequestering her. Hopefully that's the extent of it, but that's already bad enough, in my opinion.

As to how she sounds, it's a translation. I don't put much stock in how someone sounds in a translation.
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You don't know that. You have a theory that describes the events...but you don't have a lot of evidence for the theory.
 
LondonJohn said:
I agree.

I think they also bargained upon the WTA Tour - which is also in business with PRC to a significant extent (though not as much as the IoC wrt Beijing 2022) - would be more conciliatory than it's turned out to be. I think they thought they'd be able to style things out while "business as usual" pushed the matter further back out of public/political consciousness.

So I suspect they've been shaken by the WTA Tour taking such a hard stance, and so quickly. As I said before, I think the most likely outcome from here is that they'll do a bit more drip-feeding of "nothing to see here" information for the next week or two, while they focus internally on, uhm, "reprogramming" Peng to do and say the things they want her to do/say. Then comes the grand reveal, and (say) the 60-Minutes interview.
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Pretty much how I see things unfolding. Hope I'm wrong.
 
Orphia Nay said:
How do people know they're sequestering her?
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The reason the concern started to begin was that Peng suddenly cut off all interpersonal communication with friends, colleagues, and sports organizations shortly after making a public post about having been assaulted by a prominent government official.

While the government itself has released some publicity shots from incidents such as this one, and...facilitated an online chat between her and the WTA, that initial problem of her not communicating with anyone the way she had been up until that moment has apparently not changed, from which it can be deduced that whatever special circumstance caused that change in the first place hasn't been resolved yet.

It's fine and good for state media to release a video of her silently waving at people; but did any independent news organizations happen to see her when she entered the venue, or when she left? Did she come and go by herself? Did she actually stay and watch some of the action at the event, or was she whisked away after waving for the cameras?
 
Checkmite said:
The reason the concern started to begin was that Peng suddenly cut off all interpersonal communication with friends, colleagues, and sports organizations shortly after making a public post about having been assaulted by a prominent government official.

While the government itself has released some publicity shots from incidents such as this one, and...facilitated an online chat between her and the WTA, that initial problem of her not communicating with anyone the way she had been up until that moment has apparently not changed, from which it can be deduced that whatever special circumstance caused that change in the first place hasn't been resolved yet.

It's fine and good for state media to release a video of her silently waving at people; but did any independent news organizations happen to see her when she entered the venue, or when she left? Did she come and go by herself? Did she actually stay and watch some of the action at the event, or was she whisked away after waving for the cameras?
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My skepticism sees a "God of the gaps" argument in this, where no evidence is ever good enough.
 
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