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What Peng Shuai reveals about one-party rule

economist.com

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Re: What Peng Shuai reveals about one-party rule

#61

The media's reporting on Peng Shuai's case is... let's say, incomplete. For a better picture, one should read her original Weibo post. Here is a translation: https://www.reddit.com/r/tennis/comments/qmn69a/full_transla... I've checked this translation and I agree with most of it.

What's your opinion on this alternative translation posted a couple of days ago? https://www.reddit.com/r/tennis/comments/qzhxao/translation_... It attempts to highlight a few cultural nuances missing from the original translation. However it hasn't had any native speakers weigh in on it on r/tennis.

It's commendable that he tried adding more notes but on the whole I don't find it more useful to English speakers than the version I linked. The version you linked also has some things I disagree with:

I disagree with note 4, claiming that that paragraph is her evidence for non-consensual relationship. My reading of that paragraph (about 10 years ago, the previous time she had an affair) is that that was consensual, or at least not unconsensual. My reading is that at the time she met him for the 2nd time, she was still heartbroken at him for having broken up 10 years ago.

The translation you linked to also misses an important note on the phrase "逼我和你发生关系". Presumably the "rape allegation" narrative is based on this phrase. The problem however is that 逼 could mean either “to pressure [to have sex]” or “to force [to have sex]”; its meaning is ambiguous. It could be something like "my parents forced me to become doctor" (they didn't literally force, they nagged until you agree).

There is no doubt that Zhao is a manipulative jerk and that he engaged in unacceptable questionable acts. But given the ambiguity of this phrase, plus the fact that the rest of the text is not focused on that single even, makes some wonder whether this is even a rape allegation at all. The rest of the text say things like "I reopened my love for you", "we are so compatible", "we could talk endlessly". Some believe that this is more like her venting that he played with her feelings and then dumped her.

Re: What Peng Shuai reveals about one-party rule

#62
post #6

> With the Winter Olympics opening in Beijing in February, the IOC and corporate sponsors have multi-billion-dollar reasons to help China make the Peng Shuai story go away. Therein lies a bleak lesson. The WTA has been brave in challenging China, given that it has organised lucrative tournaments there. But as a women’s sports association, it depends on retaining the confidence of women players. Sometimes there are in…

It is remarkable but it shouldn’t be surprising. As the article says, the WTA is a women’s sports association and arguably the most successful one in the world. If the WTA caved to pressure from China then they would rightly be vilified in the west for betraying women. There is no way they could ever do that and get away with it!

Re: What Peng Shuai reveals about one-party rule

#63

I am not trying to defend China or the CCP in any way here, the situation is not defensible. However, I'm surprised that more comparisons haven't been made to the way the West has erased Julian Assange, and how easily he disappeared from our collective consciousness.

If we’re going to talk about erasure, one big difference is that there are many people like you in the West who do draw those comparisons publicly on the internet and they remain accessible and even popular online.

Re: What Peng Shuai reveals about one-party rule

#64
post #35
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can’t help but wonder how badly the CCP is actually fighting to suppress this, though - I think I heard laowhy86 argue that they might allow it to consume the news cycle, to distract from something else. Seeing this comment, and seeing e.g. CBS highlight the story, it really just seems fishy in general. Something is different - maybe we’re just in a new era, but who knows.

laowhy86 is about as reliable a source on China as Alex Jones on Sandy Hook. Bottom of the gutter grifting.

Or reasons for saying this?

Re: What Peng Shuai reveals about one-party rule

#65
post #50
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

laowhy86 is about as reliable a source on China as Alex Jones on Sandy Hook. Bottom of the gutter grifting.

Ok, do you have any recommendations for uh, China analysis YouTubers?

Cyrus Janssen, Daniel Dumbrill, Geopolitics In Conflict, Carl Zha, Brian Berletic.

Re: What Peng Shuai reveals about one-party rule

#66

The media's reporting on Peng Shuai's case is... let's say, incomplete. For a better picture, one should read her original Weibo post. Here is a translation: https://www.reddit.com/r/tennis/comments/qmn69a/full_transla... I've checked this translation and I agree with most of it.

How is the specific content of her Weibo post relevant at all here? The issue is that the woman was kidnapped by the Chinese government because simple because she spoke out publicly, and it seems to me that the media’s reporting has been very complete in that regard. What specifically has been lacking?

Because the media doesn't just report on her safety, it also reports on what she said? And how they interpret what she said has significant impact on how people think what happened?

Re: What Peng Shuai reveals about one-party rule

#67

I am not trying to defend China or the CCP in any way here, the situation is not defensible. However, I'm surprised that more comparisons haven't been made to the way the West has erased Julian Assange, and how easily he disappeared from our collective consciousness.

Because that's not comparable..? If someone tried to disseminate classified Chinese military documents depicting war crimes, and got caught by CCP, chances are that nobody will ever see them or hear of them ever again.

A much more comparable incident is something like this ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Trump_sexual_misconduct... ), where nobody was "disappeared" - on the contrary, for several months, the media talked about it pretty much every day.

Re: What Peng Shuai reveals about one-party rule

#68

I am not trying to defend China or the CCP in any way here, the situation is not defensible. However, I'm surprised that more comparisons haven't been made to the way the West has erased Julian Assange, and how easily he disappeared from our collective consciousness.

You'll hear more Assange when there's progress on US extradition case https://www.npr.org/2021/10/27/1049570918/the-u-s-is-set-to-...

For now there's recent news that he's getting married, but that isn't going to be frontpage news

Re: What Peng Shuai reveals about one-party rule

#69
post #54
post #34

I wonder if the readers/commenters realize there is a massive blackout about this in China. All this propaganda is directed at us. check Laowhy86's video about this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Dc4tNY7S6Q

I wouldn't trust Laowhy86's videos on topics about China. His channel is very clear on anti-china progaganda.

He is actually very clear on that. He is anti-CCP. China != CCP

Re: What Peng Shuai reveals about one-party rule

#70
post #43
post #31

>His tabloid then tweeted what looked like staged videos of Ms Peng having dinner at a restaurant with her coach and meeting children at a tennis event. Is the production of deepfakes by the world's largest internal security service outside the domain of plausibility? A smart programmer can crank one out in a weekend by themself. What can an entire cyber security bureau accomplish with the backing of the CCP?

a) Peng is represented by a deep faked body clone while she rots in a See See Pee blacksite. b) Washington media is blowing literally any scandal out of proportion in a propaganda blitz aimed at tarnishing Beijing 2022. Occam's Razor, anyone?

c) She was kept locked up and threatened, and was trotted out for a few hours here and there as a photo op to cover up her imprisonment.
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