Written by Staff Writer
Peng Shuai has denied accusations of sexual assault made by a retired member of the Chinese Communist Party.
The case has divided the country and caused media frenzy ahead of the Olympic diving silver medalist’s Olympic debut at the 2017 World Aquatics Championships in Budapest this weekend.
On Thursday, he was named in a post on a Weibo, China’s version of Twitter, by Fengtao Zhou who wrote: “In 2005, I was playing ping pong with myself when my mouth was filled with a liquid. At first I didn’t know what it was. Then I realized that the liquid was a man’s genitals, but I didn’t know what was going on.”
“He seemed quite drunk, and he also pointed to his penis. It was a very dirty man’s penis, and it squirted everywhere, sticking to the table.”
Former Chinese Communist Party politician Hou Linaying; Dong Jiansheng (back row, l.), former president of the Central Academy of Finance and Economics; and Zhu Chongwen (l.), chief of the Red Cross Commission; were discovered in March 2017 allegedly conspiring to pay hundreds of thousands of yuan to Peng Shuai (back row, r.) for sexual favors. CNN
Zhou’s account led to a flood of accusations against another former member of the Chinese Communist Party who was apparently with him at the time, Hou Linaying.
On Thursday the former vice premier was revealed to be Dong Jiansheng , the second deputy secretary of the Central Economic Work Conference.
Dong and Zhou are in fact brothers-in-law, and Hua was a vice chairman of the Shanxi provincial government while Peng was a vice mayor in the city of Linfen, the pair’s hometown.
Peng, together with Hua, has denied Zhou’s allegations. Chinese media are reporting that he is working with lawyers and is also working on a documentary for Chinese state television.
He declined to comment to CNN when asked to comment on this story.
Over the past few weeks the case has been covered extensively in Chinese state-run media outlets.
It has sparked public debate and continued to dominate the conversation leading up to the world’s largest swimming championships in Budapest.
1 / 21 Deng Chao, a former boy from Yunnan province, won the bronze medal in the men’s individual synchro 10m platform final. Deng, who grew up an orphan at the Tibet Martyrs’ Monument in Beijing, had been waiting to go to the Olympic Games for four years. Credit: Christine Jones
CNN was unable to reach Zhou for further comment. Dong, Hou, Zhou and Zhao were unavailable for comment.
On Thursday night Hong Kong based Chinese journalist Sandra Hong reported that Zhou also spoke on CCTV about the incident, saying that he was scared for his life and moved out of the country.
Peng Shuai is coached by former Chinese swimming team leader Dong Jiansheng, one of the alleged conspirators. Credit: Courtesy CCTV CCTV
Two weeks ago, CNN first reported on Deng Chao, a former boy from Yunnan province who won the bronze medal in the men’s individual synchro 10m platform final. Deng was born an orphan at the Tibet Martyrs’ Monument in Beijing, and had been waiting for four years to go to the Olympic Games, the boy told Chinese media after his medal win.
Since Deng’s gold medal success, Zhu Chongwen, who once worked as a presidential advisor, was discovered in March 2017 allegedly conspiring to pay hundreds of thousands of yuan to Peng for sexual favors.
The pair have also denied Zhu’s accusations. Zhu later left for Hong Kong.