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Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai, who has won the doubles at both Wimbledon and the French Open, has publicly accused a retired Communist official, the former Vice Premier, Zhang Gaoli, of sexual assault. She made the accusation in a post on Chinese microblogging site Weibo but her claims have since been deleted from the site.

Leta Hong Fincher, author of the book Betraying Big Brother: The Feminist Awakening in China, says that although individual accusers tend to be "silenced or persecuted," a grassroots feminism movement has been gaining momentum in China and that these accusations highlight the "extreme misogyny and sexism" of Chinese society.

Photo: Peng Shuai during a match at the 2020 Australian Open Credit: Getty Images