chinese tennis star pong shui disappeared then the world started asking where she was
that's causing a big problem for the chinese communist party
welcome to john and censored i'm chris chappell before we begin in case you haven't heard
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every year hundreds of thousands of people disappear in china they disappear into prisons and
detention centers concentration camps re-education centers black jails and house arrest occasionally
someone disappears in a way that attracts attention enough attention to cause a problem
for the chinese communist party that's what happened to tennis star and former olympic athlete
pong shui i told you several weeks ago about how pong accused a former top leader of sexual assault
that leader was former vice premier john gaoli he was a member of the politburo standing committee
the small group of men at the top level of the communist party and like i said earlier jiang
is also a member of former leader and shriveled toad jiang zamin's political faction
pong accused zhang of forcing her to have sex in 2018. that's after he had already retired
from the standing committee but it was still an incredibly politically sensitive accusations
so sensitive that her original post on chinese social media platform weibo was quickly censored
pung's name and even the word tennis has been censored on the chinese
internet after her accusation pong then disappeared from public view for weeks
and then people started asking where is pong shui including the women's tennis association the wta
the wta even went further calling for a full and transparent investigation
into pong's sexual assault allegations and even threatened to completely pull out of china
and a huge tennis star started speaking out about peng shui from naomi osaka to serene williams
to roger federer and rafael nadal i have to say when people talk about why the nba really needs
china and how the nfl scrambling for attention from china not to mention the olympics being
held in china again i didn't expect tennis to be the sport to take a stand against
the chinese communist party although to be fair tennis players do have a lot of balls
but it's nice to see an organization like wta actually say they'd be willing to pull out of
china even if it costs them millions and the story of punctualized disappearance landed on front
pages around the world people called for a boycott of the beijing winter olympics including nba
player ennis cantor even the white house called for an investigation into pungshui's allegations
in response the chinese regime's propaganda machine set out to reassure the world that
pungshui was just fine thank you and the results were hilarious
in a deeply disturbing way i'll show you why after the break
welcome back the chinese communist party probably didn't expect the world to pay much
attention to pengui's disappearance but when it did they went into full damage control mode
first state-run cgtn published an email allegedly from pong to the head of the wta saying she's not
missing or unsafe she's just resting oh and those sexual assault allocations aren't true either
the sexual assault allegations she had posted on her own social media account
totally not true yep is fine she's just resting you know pining for the fjords
when the cgtn email failed to convince anyone a state-run media worker posted photos of peng
shui that were supposedly from her wechat account the third photo in particular attracted a lot of
attention since she's holding a kung fu panda in front of a photo of her with winnie the pooh
what does that mean but even that failed to reassure people for some reason
so next huxi jin the editor-in-chief of my favorite chinese state-run media the
global times started posting videos of pungshui having dinner in a restaurant in the first video
people mention the date out loud as you do when eating dinner
in the second video the date is written on the door which is the normal thing restaurants do
i'm just surprised who xi jing didn't show a picture of pungshui reading the newspaper too
but the next day who did post videos of punxhua signing autographs at a youth tennis match see
there she is smiling in public if anyone is still worried about pung safety it's clearly
because they are dark twisted people who live in terrible countries it has nothing at all
to do with the chinese regime's long history of disappearing and reappearing people and finally
the president of the international olympic committee was able to have a video call with pong
and she was fine look at her smiling clearly nothing is wrong now why did pong have a call with
the ioc and not the wta which has been demanding all along to be able to talk directly to her
is it because the ioc definitely wants to hold the olympics in beijing in a few months
and therefore won't ask any awkward questions like were you sexually assaulted but in many ways
the chinese communist party's propaganda backfired because the more they insisted pong was doing
great the more people had questions about whether she really was more after the break
welcome back after a global outcry over pong shui's disappearance the chinese communist
party has responded with a highly orchestrated campaign to show pungshui is safe and free
it's not the first time they've done something like this either it's a familiar pattern the
chinese regime has a long history of silencing high profile dissenters and erasing inconvenient
truths then forcing the oppressed to appear on video to recant allegations admit to crimes or
tell the public that they are safe and well pung's reappearance under pressure shows the
chinese communist party has her under control as it's called in chinese she's complying there's
just no way to know whether punctualize actually safe and well that's the way the system is set up
even if pong left china the communist party could threaten her friends and relatives to silence her
we've talked to many chinese dissidents who have been threatened exactly like that
one sign that pong's not actually free news about her is still incredibly censored in china
despite the outpouring of concern about miss pong's well-being on twitter and other online
platforms that are blocked in china the chinese public has little knowledge of the discussions
chinese statement media has been doing a huge propaganda push about pong but it's all on twitter
which means it's for foreigners not chinese people inside china where twitter is blocked as some have
pointed out the party's ham-handed propaganda messaging is not actually about convincing people
which is good for them because they're terrible at that in a way their terrible propaganda is
actually a demonstration of the power of the state it especially works inside china
chinese people know the party isn't telling them the truth but they're too afraid to say anything
unfortunately for the communist party it doesn't work as well outside china where people haven't
been totally intimidated by the chinese regime but they're working on it feng shui is not the
only high profile disappearance in reappearance recently last year chinese billionaire jack ma
disappeared for three months after he made a speech criticizing government regulation
over the summer chinese actress zhao wei was scrubbed from the chinese internet
and she's barely been seen since but these are all people whose disappearances were noticed on the
world stage like i said earlier there are hundreds of thousands of people who disappear in china each
year feng shui is much luckier than them although her sexual assault allegation against zhang gaoli
will probably never be investigated unless china's leader xi jinping needs to get rid of zhang for
some reason but pong is probably protected from being imprisoned by the fact that the rest of the
world is paying attention to whether she's okay that's something most people in china don't have
after their propaganda campaign backfired the chinese communist party is now focusing on
changing the narrative they are deflecting pong's original sexual assault accusation
and instead making it about foreign governments maliciously hyping up the issue
look at all those mean foreign countries using pungshui to attack
poor defenseless china let's all remember who the real victim is here people
now it's time for me to answer a question from a fan who supports china uncensored the crowdfunding
website patreon or the subscription community locals temuka venables asks my question is do
you think that looking back the ccp will regret their sledgehammer to crack a walnut approach
with hong kong as it ultimately has meant that people can see them for what they really are
don't keep their word don't respect international treaties they themselves proposed
and that they can't try and sell one country two systems as a viable option for taiwan
anymore great question tamuka what you said about the results of the chinese communist party's
sludgehammer approach is absolutely right their treatment of hong kong has opened many people's
eyes and it's also gotten governments around the world to stand up to the communist party
and as shelley man and i found out when we traveled to taiwan to cover the presidential
election in january 2020 what happened in hong kong definitely affected how people voted
so the chinese communist party did gain control over hong kong but it backfired
in many ways so do they regret it tomoka well if the party had to do it all over again they
would do the exact same thing they have to their system prioritizes control over everything else
after millions marched in the street against their rule the communist party saw hong kong as a threat
they could not tolerate leaving hong kong free no matter how bad the damage to their reputation
no matter how negatively it affected their global ambitions they had to control hong kong above all
in a way it's similar to what we've been talking about with how they disappear people
wouldn't it be better for them to just stop controlling peng shui
instead of doubling down on this ham-fisted propaganda showing she's totally fine
but this is the only way the party can handle it the chinese communist party can never back down
they think that would make them weak and undermine their rule
that's why they would rather shoot people in the streets of beijing than agree to political
reform thanks for your question tamuka and thanks for supporting china and censor
and if you'd like to have me answer your question on the show join us on patreon or locals
once again i'm chris chappell thanks for watching china uncensored
you