China Briefing | To protect one retired leader, China’s bungling censors turned the Peng Shuai mess into a major incident damaging the reputation of the whole country
- Chinese bureaucrats’ propensity to cover up and their foolish decision to protect the retired ex-vice-premier Zhang Gaoli have turned the scandal over the tennis star into an international incident
- The high-handed, top-down approach of censorship and coercion, which works so well at home, is futile on the world stage. It has only given ammunition to those calling for a boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics
But the ramifications are set to rumble on for months to come. It started as a scandal in which Peng made sexual assault allegations against a former senior Chinese leader with whom she was supposedly romantically involved, on and off, for years.
02:22
Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai disappears after online post alleging senior official sexual assault
Alas. The Chinese censors have only themselves to blame for this whole sorry saga. It again highlights the futility of China’s propaganda machine trying to sway international opinion through its high-handed and top-down approach of censorship and coercion, which works so well at home.
On first glance, their disregard for common sense beggars belief but a deeper look shows that their bungled responses were inevitable, and they are most unlikely to learn any useful lesson from this major international embarrassment.
