Strong Pushback and Prestigious Recognition

WTA still can't contact Peng directly after repeated attempts

This morning Beijing woke up to the news that the Women's Tennis Association is suspending all tournaments in China in 2022 in a bid to keep the conversation going about tennis player Peng Shuai who has not been heard from since early November following her explosive sexual assault allegations.

"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," said Steve Simon, the WTA's chairman and CEO, in a statement.

Simon says too risky to hold WTA events in China

He was also concerned about the risks players and staff would face should the WTA hold events in China next year. The suspension, enacted immediately, will also apply to events in Hong Kong.

"If powerful people can suppress the voices of women and sweet allegations of sexual assault under the rug, then the basis on which the WTA was founded -- equality for women -- would suffer an immense setback," Simon said. "I will not and cannot let that happen to the WTA and its players."

A WTA spokeswoman told Agence France-Presse over the weekend that Simon had made numerous attempts to reach Peng directly, "to which it was clear her responses were influenced by others".

"While we now know where Peng is, I have serious doubts that she is free, safe and not subject to censorship, coercion and intimidation," Simon said Wednesday, reiterating the WTA's call for a "full and transparent" investigation into Peng's original charges.

Although the chances of WTA tournaments really happening in China are slim because of its strict regulations in trying to keep Covid-19 at bay, Simon's statement and actions are the strongest yet to counter Beijing's bungled handling of this scandal.

Lai honoured with prestigious press freedom prize

In another sign of pushback, jailed tycoon and publisher Jimmy Lai Chee-ying and his staff of the now shuttered Apple Daily have won the prestigious press freedom prize by the World Association of News Publishers.

The pro-democracy newspaper shut down abruptly in June following charges of breaching the national security law. Lai and several senior executives and editors have been detained on "foreign collusion" charges over Apple Daily's support for international sanctions against China.

Warren Fernandez, president of the World Editors Forum, said this year's Golden Pen of Freedom award highlighted the "fears and challenges" of journalists who face increasing curbs in Hong Kong.

"The jailing of a publisher, the arrest of an editor-in-chief and his senior colleagues, the shuttering of a newsroom, and the closure of a media title -- the 2021 Golden Pen award recognises, and reflects on, all of these," Fernandez said at a virtual ceremony on Wednesday.

Sebastian Lai received the award on behalf of his father, and said there will be "less and less people shining light in these dark corners" given Apple Daily's shutdown and the ongoing crackdown on journalism in the region.

Lai's son collected the award on his father's behalf

In a statement announcing the award, the World Association of News Publishers called Lai an "outspoken critic of Beijing's control over Hong Kong and a high-profile supporter of the pro-democracy movement".

Established in 1961, the Golden Pen of Freedom is an annual award that recognises outstanding contributions to the defence and promotion of press freedom.

Lai and Apple Daily, and by extension Hong Kong, are still being remembered by the rest of the world. 

Hong Kong's Further Shrinking Press Freedoms

The BBC World Service will not be carried by RTHK anymore

 

Last week the UK revoked the broadcasting license of China Global Television Network (CGTN), after it said the state-owned broadcaster was run by the Chinese Communist Party and therefore violated British laws.

That led to Bejiing banning the BBC World Service "within Chinese territory" for what it called "serious content violations" following an explosive report on sexual assault of Uyghur women in "vocational training centres" that many critics say are internment camps.

The BBC report says Uyghur women were raped

Just hours after that announcement, Radio Television Hong Kong followed suit with an announcement this morning, which led to an outcry that press freedom is further deteriorating in the city.

RTHK stopped broadcasting BBC's World Service and News Weekly as of 11pm tonight, though other TV networks like TVB, Now TV and Cable TV said they would continue offering programs by the UK-based broadcaster.

Previously RTHK aired BBC World Service daily from 11pm to 7am, and the Cantonese-language radio show BBC News Weekly every Sunday at 7am. It was not clear what the programing would be replaced with.

The head of the University of Hong Kong's journalism and media studies centre, Keith Richburg, says it's "surprising" that RTHK has pulled the plug on its live relay of BBC World Service.

Richburg questions RTHK's decision on BBC

"Hong Kong is supposedly still autonomous, first of all, And so a decision like this seems to have been something that would have been ordered either by the Hong Kong government for RTHK or coming from the top from China and relayed to RTHK," he said.

"We really kind of need to get to the background of how that decision was made and made so quickly as well. People would be very very curious to know what the decision-making process was behind that."

Meanwhile, the RTHK Programme Staff Union called on the broadcaster and the relevant government bureau to explain the decision.

In a statement, the union says under One Country, Two Systems, it has never heard of other examples when Hong Kong has to follow instructions by the mainland's broadcasting regulator.

It noted that RTHK has been relaying BBC World Service for more than four decades, and it's a pity that the arrangement has come to an end.

RTHK's move follows Beijing's decision

Finally in a written statement, RTHK cited Beijing's decision as the reason for its move, while a spokeswoman said the decision was made within the broadcaster's management.

"The decision was made among RTHK management, and concerned heads of sections were informed this morning," said Echo Wai Pui-man, head of corporate communications and standards at RTHK.

So it seems the decision was political in following Beijing's lead. Will this affect how other foreign media outlets operate in Hong Kong? 

Richburg now knows where the city stands... behind Beijing.

Richard Liu's Arresting Incident

Richard Liu Qiandong's mug shot at the police station

 The story of how a Chinese billionaire was arrested for alleged sexual assault in the United States is a curious one.

Richard Liu Qiandong, chairman and chief executive of JD.com, an e-commerce site, was arrested in Minneapolis on August 31 and brought to the Hennepin County police station and booked at 11.32pm.

What's interesting is that JD.com tried to brush off the incident, saying the 45-year-old was released without charges, nor did he have to post bail. As a result he returned to China, though the company didn't specify when.

Liu and his wife Zhang Zetian or "Sister Milk Tea"

However, the police there are saying they are still investigating the incident without disclosing more information. They said there were no travel restrictions imposed on Liu, who was apparently in the American city to attend the residency component of a business-education program conducted by the University of Minnesota.

This is not the first time Liu has been embroiled, though indirectly in another sexual assault case -- in 2015 he had a house party in his penthouse in Sydney and a guest there, Xu Longwei, was convicted in July this year for sexually assaulting a fellow guest at a hotel after the party.

While there was no accusation of any misconduct by Liu, the billionaire lost a legal bid to keep his name out of the records in Australia.

Chinese cyberspace was busy with the news of the arrest and subsequent release of Liu. They were surprised that his mugshot was publicly available and wondered what his wife, Zhang Zetian thought of the whole incident.

Many of Ma's supporters posted pictures of him laughing

She's also well known in the media. Zhang became famous as a student, nicknamed "Sister Milk Tea" after posing with a cup of milk tea, and the pictures widely spread on social media. Liu met Zhang when she was studying in the United States and they married three years ago.

Before his arrest, Liu said in a previous interview that he did not marry Zhang for her looks, saying, "I am face blind. I can't tell who is pretty and who is not."

One internet user joked, "Maybe he mistook the other woman for Sister Milk Tea. He is face blind, after all."

Ouch.

In the last few years JD.com has become a formidable competitor to Alibaba, chasing the same group of affluent internet shoppers.

There is no love lost between Liu and Jack Ma Yun, with Liu accusing Alibaba of selling fakes online, while Ma claimed JD.com would end in "tragedy" because its business model was excessively labour and capital intensive.

But it looks like Ma won this round -- when news of Liu's arrest was heard, Ma's online supporters posted pictures of him laughing.