Peng Shuai saga hews to familiar script in China

By SARAH DiLORENZO
Associated Press

BEIJING (AP) — The drama surrounding Peng Shuai is following a familiar script: Someone who has run afoul of China’s Communist government disappears from view. What happens next depends on the case. But it is not uncommon for the person in question to disavow the statements or actions that first upset officials. Other times, the person simply keeps a lower profile. Sometimes, their arrest is eventually announced. Peng’s saga began when she wrote in a social media post that a former member of the party’s all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee had forced her to have sex. That post was quickly taken down and the former top-ranked doubles player dropped from public view for a while. From powerful businessmen to dissidents, such disappearances have happened before.