A screenshot from Hong Kong CitizenNews‘ video report on Youtube. Content notice: this article contains mentions of sexual assault that some readers might find disturbing. Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai made allegations that Zhang Gaoli, the former vice-premier of China, sexually assaulted her two times in the last ten years. The revelation triggered social media discussions, which were then removed from Chinese social media in under one hour as censors hastily blocked any content related to the sexual assaults. Discussions quickly moved outside China's Great Firewall to Twitter, where Chinese netizens came up with two theories on Peng's exposé. Some see it as part of an internal power struggle within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) while others believe that Peng's courage comes from the Chinese #MeToo movement. The unverified testimony of 35-year-old professional tennis player Peng Shuai was reportedly published on her Weibo account on November 2 around 10 pm. It was removed in about 20 minutes, but her followers had already screenshotted the post and circulated it. Emily Feng from NPR posted Peng's testimony on Twitter: Unverified post from Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai, taken down from Weibo within minutes, in which she claims (again unverified) that she was assaulted by former Vice premier Zhang Gaoli, before willingly becoming his mistress. Highest public #MeToo allegation in China pic.twitter.com/lPU8fQ9vbx — Emily Feng 冯哲芸 (@EmilyZFeng) November 2, 2021 The testimony said that the first sexual assault had taken place more than ten years ago when Peng was in her twenties, and the most recent assault was about three years ago. She described being “terrified” and lured to the politician's home under false pretenses of playing tennis. Peng's wife was present when the assaults took place. After the first assault, she felt pressured to become his mistress. Peng Shuai has remained silent since the post was uploaded to Weibo. Zhang Gaoli, 75, was the vice-premier of China from 2013–2018, a member of the standing committee of the CCP from 2012–2017, and the party secretary of Tianjin from 2007–2012. While there have been many sex-related scandals involving government and party officials, Zhang is the highest-ranking official to be implicated. Although the details of the allegation can’t be verified, many Chinese netizens view it as authentic, as pointed out by Chinese human rights activist Yaqiu Wang: Peng's account of events can't be verified. Even whether it is from her is not verified. But reading the essay, one can feel the authenticity, because we are all familiar with this dynamic involving unaccountable power, secrecy, abuse, and exploitation. https://t.co/hdZpRlsiPr — Yaqiu Wang 王亚秋 (@Yaqiu) November 3, 2021 As expected, the incident has triggered some of the most rigorous censorship seen in recent years. All online discussions on major social media platforms about Peng Shuai’s allegations were deleted in China, including posts that used homonyms or coded words to replace the involved parties’ names. William Yang, a journalist, and Alexander Boyd, a former NGO volunteer, shared their observations on the rigorous censorship on Weibo: Just tried to leave a “hi” under Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai’s Weibo account and this is what pops up: “Because the content contains messages violating Weibo’s community rules, it can not be processed.” #China’s censorship in play. pic.twitter.com/nTLOeIvZN1 — William Yang (@WilliamYang120) November 3, 2021 A list of censored terms AND emojis related to Peng Shuai's post about Zhang Gaoli: - 诸葛亮 Zhu Geliang – 张国立 Zhang Guoli – 菩萨 Bodhisattva – 巨型瓜 Gigantic Melon – 网球 Tennis likely far more… but both hunted (melon-eaters) and hunter (Weibo censors) have ran past me — Alexander Boyd (@alexludoboyd) November 2, 2021 Some netizens are debating whether this event is being used as a tool in the CPP's internal power struggle. Cai Xia, a retired professor of the CCP Central Party School who resides in the US, believes that the Chinese censor intentionally kept Peng’s post online for more than 20 minutes, just enough time for the scandal to spread: 中共網管極為嚴密，前常委等人名字都可以是敏感詞，直接點名道姓的爆瓜丑聞，一般根本發不出去，而彭帥微博文居然存活了20分鐘，多麼奇妙的20分鐘！這就是讓子彈飛……飛一會兒。 20分鐘足夠傳開，於是封閉微博……這是典型的網絡操控過程，即要打擊對手又不能動搖中共極權統治…… The CCP has an extremely strict censorship practice. The names of former standing committee members are often flagged as sensitive terms. Exposés that involve real names, could trigger an automatic blockage and could not be published in most circumstances. But Peng Shuai’s Weibo post survived for 20 minutes. This 20-minute time is quite magical. This signals an intention to let the bullet fly… fly for just a moment.