The Silencing of Peng Shuai

This is pretty terrifying:

When tennis star Peng Shuai launched her explosive #MeToo accusation against a former Communist Party leader earlier this month, the Chinese government responded in typical fashion — by muffling her with blanket censorship.Now, more than two weeks on, Beijing is facing a storm of its own making, as the global women’s tennis community rises up to challenge Chinese authorities for silencing one of their peers.

Peng, 35, a two-time former Grand Slam doubles champion, has vanished from the public eye since she accused former Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli, 75, of coercing her into sex at his home in a since-deleted social media post on November 2. Since then, Chinese censors have been diligently scrubbing her name and even the vaguest references to her allegations from the internet.

I’m so old I remember when it was conventional pundit wisdom that a more capitalist economy in China would inevitably lead to a liberalized, more democratic government. Whoopsie Daisy!