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Washington, D.C. – House Foreign Affairs Committee Lead Republican Michael McCaul released the following statement after the International Olympics Committee (IOC) promoted its participation in a video call with People’s Republic of China tennis player Peng Shuai, who has disappeared following sexual assault allegations against a Chinse Communist Party (CCP) official. Though Peng has not been seen independently in public since November 2, CCP-controlled media outlets have issued reports of her wellbeing that are likely manipulated or coerced.

In Peng’s call with IOC president Thomas Bach, which the IOC did not make available to independent media, the only individual present other than the alleged victim and IOC officials was a high-ranking CCP official and Vice-President of the Chinese Olympic Committee.

“It has been disturbing to see the IOC take statements from CCP propagandists at face value since Peng Shuai’s disappearance, but their promotion of this latest stunt turns the IOC from willfully ignorant into an active participant in the CCP’s mistreatment of Peng. It’s clear the IOC is more interested in its financial relationship with the CCP than in protecting the wellbeing of Olympic athletes. Given this direct collusion between the IOC the Chinese Olympic Committee to marginalize and silence Peng on top of the genocide and gross human rights violations perpetrated by the CCP, it is far past the time for the Biden Administration to take a forward-leaning policy position on the Olympics and to prepare our athletes for the hostile environment they will be entering.”

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