The Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) announced on Wednesday that it would suspend all of its tournaments in China, a dramatic escalation in the global reaction to Beijing’s censorship of an explosive sexual assault claim by Chinese tennis pro Peng Shuai.
“In good conscience, I don’t see how I can ask our athletes to compete [in China] when Peng Shuai is not allowed to communicate freely and has seemingly been pressured to contradict her allegation of sexual assault,” Steve Simon, the WTA’s chairman and CEO, said in a statement.
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