Is the IOC quietly whitewashing China’s actions?

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) was under siege. Peng Shuai, a three-time Olympian from China, had not been heard from for weeks after making sexual abuse allegations against a senior political official, a man who had played a central role in preparations for the coming Winter Games in Beijing.

Initially silent on the disappearance of Peng, a women’s tennis star, Olympic officials were now facing a growing global chorus of concern. The WTA Tour, through its CEO, was demanding answers and an investigation. Fellow tennis stars Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka — as well as human rights groups, politicians and everyday fans — went on social media to ask #WhereIsPengShuai? Media organisations were flooding the internet with news coverage.

Cornered by the criticism, the IOC finally responded. This, Olympic officials insisted, was a time not for public statements but for “quiet diplomacy”.

For the organisation’s many critics, the guarded language — viewed more as an attempt to explain away its silence rather than ensure Peng’s safety — was just the latest proof that the IOC will not take any action that might upset its partner for a Winter Olympics that is now only months away.

The response drew public condemnation and frustration behind the scenes in the Olympic movement.

“The IOC must not be complicit in protecting the regime and allowing it be captured for Chinese propaganda purposes,” said Maximilian Klein, head of international relations for Athleten Deutschland, a representative group for German athletes.

Many national Olympic committees, facing pressure at home to speak out more forcefully on China’s human rights record, are now grumbling about what they feel is a failure of leadership by the IOC. Some fear that the unwillingness of Olympic leaders to pressure China has left them and their athletes exposed to possible retribution during the Games.

“In absence of them saying something, it shifts pressure to others to do so,” said one national

Olympic committee official, who declined to be quoted by name out of fear of making an uncomfortable situation worse. “If we start being critical, all of a sudden, it becomes more political if a nation starts to criticise China.”

“We are the ones that need to keep our heads down,” the official added, “not the IOC.”

The efforts of top Olympic officials to clarify Peng’s status have done little to ease the crisis of confidence. Last week, the IOC released an image of a video call involving Peng and IOC President Thomas Bach. The call was the first known contact between the tennis player and a Western sports official since she went public with her allegations, and since China, which once hailed her successes in state media, quickly deleted them and then moved to erase any mention of her accusation.

Rather than assuage concerns, though, the call only raised more questions about the relationship the IOC enjoys with China’s government.

The IOC statement accompanying the image provided scant details of what was discussed during the 30-minute meeting with Peng, 35, and it conspicuously avoided reference to the allegations against Zhang Gaoli, a former vicepremier of China who retired in 2018. Mr Zhang was vice-premier when Beijing was awarded the Winter Olympics in 2015, and he led an organisational committee that oversaw preparations. In 2016, he met Mr Bach during a visit to China.

In the single image released by the IOC, Peng is smiling broadly in a room filled with plush toys, including mascots from previous Olympics. The IOC statement said Mr Bach ended the call by suggesting he and Peng try to meet for dinner when he arrives in Beijing in January. The committee did not release any audio or transcript of what Peng said in her own words or suggest Mr Bach or anyone else asked her about her sexual assault claims.

“To just kind of whitewash the whole thing — ‘Nothing to see here!’ — is generally problematic,” said Sarah Cook, director of research for China at Freedom House, a rights organisation based in Washington, DC, referring to the IOC’s handling of the case and its relationship generally with the Olympic hosts. “Collaborating with the Chinese government to suppress people’s rights is different than anything that has been done before.”

Richard Pound, a Canadian lawyer and the IOC’s longest-serving member, defended the organisation’s tactics — and took aim at its critics — in an interview last week.

“What the IOC established is that quiet and discreet diplomacy gets you better than clashing cymbals,” Mr Pound said. “That’s not the way you deal with any country, certainly not with China.”

For Mr Bach, a pragmatist, there has been little room to manoeuvre once China secured hosting rights to the 2022 Winter Games six years ago amid a dearth of suitable candidate cities. The Olympics generate 91% of the organisation’s income, so the IOC has long avoided doing anything that might put at risk those billions of dollars in revenue.

“Thomas Bach is all about protecting the Olympics,” Adam Pengilly, a former IOC member, said in explaining how Mr Bach, formerly a gold-medal-winning fencer, has moved to secure the future of the Games since assuming the presidency in 2013.

Christophe Dubi, the most senior IOC official responsible for the Olympics, insisted human rights clauses were included in its contract with Beijing, although Peng’s case appears to fall outside that agreement.

Mr Dubi insisted that no subject would be off limits to the news media attending and covering the Games, but whether there will be answers remains unclear. When Chinese officials were pressed about Peng, they initially claimed ignorance even as the story drew worldwide attention, and, like the IOC, the Chinese government still has not commented on the sexual assault allegations.

The Olympic committee’s light-touch response to them, though, may have ensured that nothing will derail the final push toward the opening ceremony in Beijing in fewer than 100 days. “It does not encroach on anything I’m doing at my level to deliver the Games,” Mr Dubi said.

The IOC will not take any action that might upset its partner for a Winter Olympics that is now only months away.