Steve Simon announces WTA’s decision to suspend tournaments in China

https://www.wtatennis.com/news/2384758/steve-simon-announces-wta-s-decision-to-suspend-tournaments-in-china

by alanwong • 5 years ago

166 64 5 years ago

dmitrygr• 5 years ago

This takes some serious balls and I tip my hat to the organization! Let's see what China does to force them to reconsider

Loic• 5 years ago

Maybe recognized that women are not objects to be used and abused by people with money and authority.

This is sadly something you find everywhere in this world, but at least, in some countries, women can hope to get the justice to investigate fairly.

Being a woman in this world is not easy.

vadfa• 5 years ago

Women also have advantages in some other regards. I think it overall evens out.

necovek10• 5 years ago

That's definitely true for women around the world (including in China).

But while "silencing" is happening throughout the world for victims of sexual crimes (and we should work to stop this), what's happening to Peng is probably unrelated to the type of crime, but rather about who the perpetrator was (a highly-ranked CCP official).

She'd likely see the same fate if she talked about witnessing him do any other crime: it's most telling that not even World-known public figures like Peng can be considered safe from such intimidation.

tibbydudeza• 5 years ago

Kudos to them.

shmde• 5 years ago

They are going to lose 1/3 of revenue. Now NBA and Xohn Xhina on the other hand.

deltaci• 5 years ago

It's revenue already lost. No tournament was happening since October 2020 already. Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamzagoria/2020/07/23/wta-to-c...

ErikVandeWater4• 5 years ago

Then when China eases Covid restrictions they'll quietly add China back to the schedule like nothing happened.

Aunche3• 5 years ago

The difference is that that the WTA actually has leverage on China because China loses legitimacy in sports from this decision. No Chinese woman can ever be the best tennis player anymore. The NBA and John Cena actually have negative leverage on China. Both are purely American exports, so getting them banned in China only serves to widen the trade imbalance. China would love to find an excuse to do so.

ErikVandeWater4• 5 years ago

The NBA has orders of magnitude more leverage than women's tennis. There's a serious number of NBA fans in China who would be pissed if it were banned.

No Chinese woman can ever be the best tennis player anymore.

China already struggles mightily in both men's and women's tennis. They don't have any player in men's or women's that cracks the top 100.

hker4• 5 years ago

In terms of leverage on China, I think Apple has a lot, since they employ a lot in China. Although the next question is, can they afford (of the order of) 1/3 of their revenue?

skinkestek2• 5 years ago

I'm not interested in tennis at all but I admit feeling an urge to find some way to support tennis.

It would be great if the internet could somehow make this a fantastic decision for WTA.

Ideas?

ekanes2• 5 years ago

Absolutely. I’m in. I am hopeful viewership goes up.

hker4• 5 years ago

Both Billie Jean King, the founder of WTA, and Novak Djokovic support WTA’s announcement [1].

    “I applaud Steve Simon and the WTA leadership for taking a strong stand on defending human rights in China and around the world,” said Billie Jean King. “The WTA is on the right side of history in supporting our players. This is another reason why women’s tennis is the leader in women’s sports.”

    Novak Djokovic, World No 1 and cofounder of the Professional Tennis Players Association, said he fully supported the WTA’s stance, and everyone including the Professional Tennis Players Association (PTPA) and the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) was “asking for clarity on what is going on”.

    “We don’t have enough information and I think it’s a very bold, very courageous stance from WTA,” he told reporters.

[1]: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/dec/01/wta-suspends-t...

Joe Pompliano thinks the WTA will lose 1/3 of their revenue [2].

[2] https://twitter.com/JoePompliano/status/1466142522628059144

ekanes2• 5 years ago

They might also gain NEW fans and revenue from people impressed and intrigued by this bold move.

Calamitous• 5 years ago

I have zero interest in sports of any kind, but this has made me wonder if there’s some way I can support this.

maccolgan• 5 years ago

Is it just me or I don't see the correlation between WTA and human rights? Do they have a horse in this race?

hker4• 5 years ago

Even IOC calls the Peng Shuai situation ‘humanitarian matters’ that they would proceed with “quiet diplomacy” [1]. Short of calling this a hostage situation, this is definitely not normal.

[1] https://olympics.com/ioc/news/ioc-statement-on-the-situation...

IOC is the only entity outside China which contacted Peng Shuai, whose external communication is under heavy control by China, so it may be harder for others to see what is going on.

Also, WTA is calling for an investigation into a #MeToo, which arguably falls under human rights.

q-base• 5 years ago

Kudos! As oblivious bystander and no real tennis-knowledge apart from how the game is played, how much pressure will this put on China? How much weight does WTA carry? It will no doubt cause some media coverage no matter the outcome.

theplumber• 5 years ago

I don't see the chinesse people raising against CCP for this. Not even if the olympics are cancelled.

It's well-known that CCP leaders are untouchable in China just like Kim is untouchable in NK.

On the other hand if you look a bit to our politics, how affected was Trump by the rape/harrasment accusations? Certainly a big part of population would still vote for him even if the rape would be recorded. I don't defend China or CCP but we should put things in perspective.

The most disturbing issue in China I believe is the censorship and persecution of the victims.

CamperBob22• 5 years ago

Trump was a bit of a special case, for whatever reason. No other presidential candidacy would have made it thirty seconds beyond the "Grab 'em by the pussy" scandal.

yorwba• 5 years ago

I don't see the chinesse people raising against CCP for this.

There doesn't need to be a popular riseup. Zhang Gaoli's enemies in the CCP now have some ammunition they can use to convince the people in the CCP who don't give a shit about Zhang Whoever that it's best to get rid of him. Then it's all up to how many true allies he has. (Probably not many, as a has-been.)

I've seen a lot of reporting on Peng Shuai's public appearances or lack thereof, but little on Zhang Gaoli's whereabouts. My guess is that he's under house arrest while the party leadership decides how to deal with him.

No CCP leader is untouchable; they're all reliant on the support of their allies to remain in power. If that support ever runs out, they quickly find themselves stripped of all titles, at the wrong end of a corruption investigation and risk getting executed in the end.

ErikVandeWater4• 5 years ago

On the other hand if you look a bit to our politics, how affected was Trump by the rape/harrasment accusations?

Biden would be a better example. Biden made a point to market himself as a feminist and someone who "believes women [accusers]." Trump did not.

pjc50• 5 years ago

censorship and persecution of the victims.

Having her "disappeared" by the government is a step far beyond what usually happens in the West, but suppression of the victims in some way is still an extremely big problem and is what the whole "#metoo" movement was about.

necovek10• 5 years ago

It will probably turn into a non-event in China. As long as other entertainment is available, this is likely to be nothing but a blip.

People do not rise for entertainment, but only when they are seriously affected in their lives. Or when unfairness accumulates enough that they had enough — this will happen at some point in China, if they don't tone it down. But protesting today (and in the past) is a form of luxury: those most in need to protest their treatment usually have the smallest possibility of effectively running one (they are in a constant race to survive).

It's no accident that even throughout history, many protests and revolutions were led/supported by someone from the "elite" (rich, well-educated, plenty of spare time).

jeswin• 5 years ago

Or when unfairness accumulates enough that they had enough — this will happen at some point in China, if they don't tone it down.

CCP has built a dissent management stack all the way from early indoctrination to continuous surveillance to Tiananmen style intervention/massacre if the need ever arises. Dissent will be crushed before it becomes a movement.

We're looking at one of the greatest threats to our freedom ever; this time they have nukes, reliable delivery mechanisms and a flourishing economy (which the Soviets lacked).

arvigeus• 5 years ago

Step 1: Scrub Weibo from any mentioning of WTA, or women tennis in general.

Step 2: Withdraw all Chinese tennis players. Complain how WTA decision is hurting sport and this issue should not be politicized.

Step 3: Ban broadcasting of all women tennis tournaments.

Step 4: Massive disinformation campaign against WTA.

Step 5: Push the other organizations that are under CCP's thumb to pressure WTA to back off.

hef19898• 5 years ago

The better question is how much pressure does it put on other organisations when it comes to bowing to China? Or any other rich, not-so-democratic country like Saudi or Qatar, or...

Because now the WTA, by no means a small sports organisation, did what the IOC, FIFA, NBA, film studios,... didn't have the courage to do. And these orgs now don't have any excuse of doing nothing about those human rights abuses.

dirtyid• 5 years ago

And these orgs now don't have any excuse of doing nothing about those human rights abuses.

Money still exists. Real WTA test is to see if they continue suspension once post covid PRC opens up. PRC already cancelled WTA events prior to suspension, likely past 2022 pending on how covid pans out. Short term this is cost free marketting WTA. IOC, FIFA, NBA, film studios still has costs, and they still choose China.

kstenerud• 5 years ago

China will ignore it and start their own tennis authority, inviting all of the belt-and-road nations to partake. In a way we're seeing the birth of a new "Warsaw Pact vs NATO" kind of thing.

lazyeye• 5 years ago

Wow! Compare this to Hollywood, always telling us how to think and behave but otherwise happy to turn a blind eye on Uighyrs etc if they can sell a few more tickets.

ecf• 5 years ago

If forced to chose a location to do business, I have a feeling Hollywood would opt to pack up and relocate to China.

Their leaders don’t see anything other than the number of humans they can get in front of their movies, and 1.4 billion people is a whole lot more than 300ish million.

eddie_gibbon3• 5 years ago

In this matter, I see very little nuance and perspicacity from WTA when dealing with people of a different culture both politically and otherwise.

In general WTA setting out terms to nation state is a very absurd situation. If the situation was reversed, American government would care zero bit to appear accountable to any foreign or international organisation.

But what is surprising is how WTAs take on this matter is taken as is without necessary skepticism. It is rather clear that WTA don't have first hand information on the subject to take a considered judgement.

rp12• 5 years ago

Rather than make a blanket statement that people should be skeptical, can you provide a concrete reason why one should be skeptical in this case? I think most people here believe that victims of sexual assault should be able to come forward without fear of retribution. I’m curious what your counter argument is.

eddie_gibbon3• 5 years ago

The thing is WTA is claiming to speak at the behest of someone with whom they don't have direct contact. In certain aspects what WTA is doing is crossing boundaries of fair behaviour. Imagine if it was a similar allegation made by an American player, would the WTA would go guns blazing if they didn't have direct communication with the individual.

Where there is a need for circumspection, and for nuance , WTA has jumped into the fray speaking of absolutes.

Has WTA made good faith attempts like despatching its delegates to China and understand first hand the situation?

Frankly if you examine the available details, WTA only has a flimsy argument.

And also imagine what could happen next. It could be very much possible for the Chinese to organise a video call for example with Boris Johnson, in which Peng will castigate WTA for invading her privacy, and not respecting her need to stay away from public gaze, etc..

If so then what will WTA do?

Steve Simon announces WTA’s decision to suspend tournaments in China

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