What happened to China’s missing tennis star?

Did a senior Chinese politician rape one of the country’s leading tennis stars? That certainly seemed to be the allegation from Peng Shuai, the former women’s world doubles champion. In a social media post in November, she wrote about her three-year affair with former vice-premier Zhang Gaoli: ‘You took me into your bedroom, wanting to have sex with me. That afternoon I cried and originally didn’t agree.’

Now Ms Peng seems to have retracted her statement, telling a Singaporean newspaper that she had ‘never said or written that anyone has sexually assaulted me’. But scepticism remains; perhaps because of the Chinese state’s response to her November essay. Within half an hour, her Weibo post was expunged from the net, while Ms Peng’s prominent social media account is still suspended. The tennis star then fell off the radar. That triggered demands to prove her safety not only from the Women’s Tennis Association but also from the American government and the United Nations.