It has been a month since Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai posted a long blog post on Weibo, China's equivalent of Facebook and Twitter, where she told about a long-standing love affair with one of China's most powerful men, the former Deputy Prime Minister Zhāng Gāolì.

A deal that, according to Peng Shuai, began under duress and culminated several years later in a rape in Zhang's home.

The blog post as well as Peng Shuai quickly disappeared from the public eye and since then, various representatives of the Chinese government, Chinese tennis, and now also the International Olympic Committee, IOC, have engaged in crisis management, among other things by publishing videos on social media with the intention of showing that Peng has not disappeared at all and that she is free to talk.

A lot is at stake

In two months, the Winter Olympics in China will be inaugurated and all accusations against the country and threats of possible boycotts of the Olympics due to the Money Deal will damage "goodwill" and the star-studded China hopes that the event will bring.

Therefore, it was not unexpected that the Olympic base Thomas Bach was offered an opportunity for a video call with Peng Shuai.

Afterwards, he announced - not surprisingly considering that a successful Olympics is at stake - that she was feeling well and that she had withdrawn of her own free will.

With that, both the IOC and the Chinese government hoped that everything was out of the world.

WTA doubts

WTA was not satisfied:

- Now I know I know where she is, but I doubt that she is free and not censored or under threat of reprisals, replied its top manager, Steve Simon and maintained the previous demand to have a meeting with her outside China.

The WTA is not one of the major international sports organizations and it does not make as much money in the long run as, for example, the American professional basketball or football in the British Premier League.

The latter two organizations have bowed to the threat of reprisals from China when their players displeased the regime.

But according to the New York Times, it could cost the WTA hundreds of millions of dollars to withdraw from competitors in China.

But perhaps the actions of the WTA base open the door for other organizations to follow suit and stand up to the influence of the Chinese regime.

Security threatened

Steve Simon says they have no choice but to cancel nine scheduled tournaments in China and Hong Kong, as well as the prestigious WTA final in Shenzhen, as the safety of players and leaders in the country is threatened.

- Our organization's goal is to work for equality for women and we can not quietly look at whether abuse is swept under the rug, he says.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry's response to today's press conference is to in turn criticize the WTA for, as they say, politicizing sports.

The question is whether it is sufficient to satisfy the demands of international public opinion to investigate the case.

In China, they are now fighting feverishly to silence the accusations and get all the attention directed towards the upcoming Olympic Games instead.