With Peng still missing, this must be a watershed moment in how the sport deals with countries that deny human rightsHuang Xueqin was only ever trying to make her world a better place. Over the years she has become well known as a bold Chinese feminist activist and journalist who has aided survivors of sexual assault and wrote detailed accounts of her experiences during the Hong Kong protests. In September, a day before Huang was due to travel to London to study at the University of Sussex, she and the labour activist Wang Jianbing vanished. They have not been heard from since and are believed to have been detained by the Chinese authorities.This is a familiar fate for those deemed...
Sportsmen and women cannot and should not be censored. Sometimes, they are the changemakers we needSince I first found myself, as a high-profile footballer and England international, in the public eye one of the rules I have tried to live by is this: speak from a position of strength. I believe if a player speaks publicly, on any issue, while they are not performing well it will always enrage some fans and the power of their words will be lost. Supporters will think: “Focus on the pitch rather than on your pet cause.” Though some of the people Mesut Özil has angered by posting on social media about China’s treatment of Uighur Muslims won’t care particularly about his form, many...
Might the WTA Finals’ setting cast a pall over the profound symbolism of the most lucrative event in the sport’s history?As Hong Kong marched for an 11th consecutive week in August, 20 miles away a drone floated noiselessly over the Shenzhen Bay Sports Centre. It captured coordinated teams of men running across the lush grass-painted lines of a football pitch, but there were no footballs in sight. Instead, dozens of paramilitary vehicles from China’s People’s Armed Police paraded the streets of Shenzhen and settled in the arena. Satellite pictures showed more than 100 sitting tidily around the perimeter of the pitch. The military exercises were widely perceived to be an intimidation tactic, to show what China could do in Hong...
A billion-dollar deal with Alibaba is just the latest incident in which the International Olympic Committee appears to be violating its own principlesSometimes when they interrogated Xie Yang they sat him on top of a stack of plastic stools. And then, between threats to turn him into an “invalid”, they kicked, punched and head-butted him, blew cigarette smoke in his face and suggested that his wife had better take care when driving. “If you move, we can consider that you attacked a police officer, and we can take whatever steps to deal with you,” he was warned.Xie, a prominent Chinese lawyer who was among around 300 human rights activists detained in July 2015, was also hung from the ceiling and...