133 Global News Post 2

Tennis star Peng Shuai and Professor Gulnar Obul: From captives to actors by Kok Bayraq

Barczyk, H. (2021). [Cartoon illustration regarding the disappearance of Peng Shuai:]. https://www.economist.com/china/what-peng-shuai-reveals-about-one-party-rule/21806441

The article sheds light on China’s human rights violations by showing how China uses abduction to silence dissent and criticism. In November 2021, Peng Shuai, a tennis star, disappeared after publicly accusing Zhang Gaoli, the former vice-premier of China, of rape and sexual assault. After missing for two weeks, she reappeared on Chinese television and denied her former accusation while claiming that everything was just a “misunderstanding”. Peng Shuai’s dramatic change in tone and narrative after a sudden disappearance was not unique; a similar incident occurred in 2018 with Gulnar Obul, a professor at Kashgar University. After expressing negative opinions towards China’s anti-religious extremism policies during an interview, Gulnar Obul vanished. Like Peng Shuai, she later reappeared in a press conference held by the regional government claiming that she had not been in captivity and the whole incident was just a rumor spread by Uyghur separatists to slander the Chinese government. Gulnar Obul later became a propaganda tool used by the Chinese government where she made statements such as Uyghurs in Xinjiang are “the happiest Muslims in the world”. The author warned that Gulnar Obul’s fate could repeat on Peng Shuai; she could be coerced into becoming a government mouthpiece to promote Chinese propaganda in the future.

The author mostly used news articles to provide evidence. These articles are from a diverse group of news agencies that ranged from reliable, independent sources such as the Washington Post and Reuters to State-affiliated media such as China News Service and Radio Free Asia. Although these State-affiliated media contain severe biases, including them was still necessary since it allowed the audiences to juxtapose the differences in narratives.

The article helped us understand the severity of China’s human rights violations. The Chinese government not only silences dissents but actively uses abduction and other forms of coercion to convert the whistleblower into a part of China’s propaganda machine. Although China’s human rights violation is blatantly clear, it is still worth pointing out that the author is a political émigré that escaped Xinjiang and thus might hold certain biases against the Chinese government.