Why it matters that tennis is standing up to Beijing

The commercial road to Beijing is littered with grovelling apologies, cringeworthy kowtows and silent complicity in repression. That’s why the Women’s Tennis Association’s decision this week to suspend all tournaments in China is so important. In doing so the WTA is demonstrating commendable support for the missing tennis player Peng Shuai, but it is also putting moral clarity ahead of business and making a rare stand against the Chinese Communist Party.

In a statement released on Wednesday, WTA chief executive Steve Simon said, ‘In good conscience, I don’t see how I can ask our athletes to compete there.’ He said he had serious doubts that Peng was ‘free, safe and not subject to intimidation’. No other major sports organisation has pushed back against the Party in this way. ‘If powerful people can suppress the voices of women and sweep allegations of sexual assault under the rug, then the basis on which the WTA was founded — equality for women — would suffer an immense setback,’ he said.