It’s a miracle! After the international sports media – and prominent athletes – began asking where Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai was, she has miraculously made phone calls and appeared in video clips distributed by Chinese-run state media.

According to the Chinese communist mouthpieces that Twitter allows on their website (though Twitter is banned in China), Peng Shuai is TOTALLY FINE and just wanted to stay home “freely” and took a break to re-evaluate her life choices (after her accusation of sexual assault against a top CCP official was instantly deleted).

I confirmed through my own sources today that these photos are indeed Peng Shuai's current state. In the past few days, she stayed in her own home freely and she didn't want to be disturbed. She will show up in public and participate in some activities soon. https://t.co/VGLt6qoOOh

— Hu Xijin 胡锡进 (@HuXijin_GT) November 20, 2021

Yeah, this is totally kosher and not at all staged to show proof of life.

I acquired two video clips, which show Peng Shuai was having dinner with her coach and friends in a restaurant. The video content clearly shows they are shot on Saturday Beijing time. pic.twitter.com/HxuwB5TfBk

— Hu Xijin 胡锡进 (@HuXijin_GT) November 20, 2021

The Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai sits in a crowded restaurant surrounded by friends and her coach, who is going through next year’s training plan with her. ‘Tomorrow is November 20th’, he says, in a seeming non-sequitur. ‘No, tomorrow is the 21st’, one of her friends corrects him. ‘Oh yes, oh yes, the 21st’.”

This bizarre scene takes place in a new video released by several state-sources in China this afternoon, with one source even tagging the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA), Wimbledon, Novak Djokovic, Marin Cillic and others on Twitter.”

The message of the video is clear. Peng Shuai – the tennis player who has been missing since she accused the former Chinese vice-premier, Zhang Gaoli, of raping her in 2018 – is safe and the tennis world needs to calm down.”

If the forced mention of tomorrow’s date didn’t set alarm bells ringing, the clip begins with someone off screen saying ‘Okay Okay, now is perfect’. This is followed by a couple of seconds of silence where Peng Shuai laughs awkwardly, before the coach launches into his remarks. The entire thing seems scripted; and the presence of the director’s cue at the beginning of the clip is laughably amateurish.”

If you buy that Peng Shuai is completely fine and all is well, then I have a bridge to sell you in Gaza. Yes, she is alive and performing in front of the cameras. Anyone want to lay odds that her family is currently being “taken care of” by the Chinese communist dictatorship while she puts on a great big smile for the cameras? If you say she’s faking it, it just means you have a dirty mind or a bad government yourself, unlike the wonders of happy fun China.

You've never actually met a girl have you? https://t.co/DMjdVjxQ2Q

— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) November 21, 2021

Peng also put in a phone call to the International Olympic Committee. Now, why would she need to call them? The IOC told the Associated Press that Peng claimed she just wanted “privacy” right now.

The 30-minute call came amid growing global alarm over Peng after she accused a former leading Communist Party official of sexual assault. China’s ruling Communist Party has tried to quell fears abroad while suppressing information in China about Peng.”

Sunday’s call — with IOC president Thomas Bach, athletes commission chair Emma Terho and IOC member Li Lingwei, a former vice president of the Chinese Tennis Association — appears to be Peng’s first direct contact with sports officials outside China since she disappeared from public view on Nov. 2.”

Peng “thanked the IOC for its concern about her well-being,” the Switzerland-based Olympic body said in a statement.”

“She explained that she is safe and well, living at her home in Beijing, but would like to have her privacy respected at this time. That is why she prefers to spend her time with friends and family right now,” the statement said.”

First, let’s be grateful that she is still alive. Second, let’s be honest about her current situation. She might be more valuable alive than dead to the Chinese dictatorship, but the same value does not extend to her family. And this entire escapade has now firmly convinced me that Senator Tom Cotton is right. While I don’t think the IOC has the guts to move the Winter Games at the last minute, the United States should not go. Yes, I know this crushes the hopes and dreams of many athletes. But hasn’t the BLM/Colin Kaepernick crowd been screaming this whole time that some things are more important than sports? (This is sarcasm, but perhaps these woke athletes need to put their money where their mouths are.)

Senator Ted Cruz disagrees.

“I also think it’s important we do two things at the Olympics in China: Number one, that we actually show the courage the Women’s Tennis Association is showing to call out the murder, the genocide, the torture, the lies, the complicity in COVID-19 of the Chinese Communist government, to speak the truth,” Cruz said during “Face the Nation” on CBS.”

“And then number two, I really hope our young men and women – that they go over there and kick their commie asses – we need to win in the Olympics,” Cruz said.”

Cruz explained that while he believed that it would be a “mistake” to have a full boycott of the Beijing Olympics in February, he agreed with the idea to have a diplomatic boycott.”

“I think it’s a mistake to have a full boycott of the Olympics. You know, Jimmy Carter tried that in the 1970s. All it did was punish a generation of athletes,” Cruz said. “We’ve got young men and young women – Americans who spent their whole lives practicing for this moment. I don’t want to punish those young athletes. What we ought to do – I do agree with the notion of a so-called diplomatic boycott.”

While I hate to disagree with Cruz, I just don’t think this situation is salvagable. If we acknowledge that China is a chronic abuser of human rights, currently engaged in not just political oppression but ACTUAL GENOCIDE against the Uyghur population, WHY should we bother showing up to “kick their commie asses” in sports, when we need to hit them where it really hurts – their need to save face? There is no good way to “punish” China except by humiliation. The CCP needs to be shamed on the world stage, and not having western nations who claim they care about human rights abuses NOT SHOWING UP to compete in the Winter Olympics would send that message.

Sadly, the story of Peng Shuai will quickly be glossed over in the west, and she will keep that smile fixed on her face as if her life depends on it. Which it likely does.

Featured image: Peng Shuai via si.robi on Flickr, cropped, Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0)