Who is Wang Kan? Chinese official cordon tightens around Peng Shuai as she denies assault claim

A Chinese official was seen monitoring tennis star Peng Shuai as she took back her sex-assault accusation against a Communist Party boss. Chinese Olympic Committee (COC) chief of staff Wang Kan was seen sitting just a short distance away from Shuai as the athlete tried to explain that her earlier claim was a “huge misunderstanding". The photos were published by France’s L’Equipe newspaper. Some photos show Kan's reflection in a mirrir as he stood with his arms folded as Shuai posed for the cameras.

Not much is known about Kan except that the COC arranged and managed the interview, which was held “in a fancy Beijing hotel” being used by the committee -- a designated body of the People’s Republic of China. Kan, who brought Shuai to the interview, translated her Chinese to English. However, Shuai has reportedly previously spoken English at press conferences, L’Equipe said. 

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Shuai tried to walk back her public allegations against a former top-ranked official of the Communist Party, which stated that he forced her to have sex. ”I never said anyone had sexually assaulted me in any way,” she claimed. However, she had clearly made the allegation in a previous social media post.

She dismissed the incident as a “huge misunderstanding", claiming that although she did make the Weibo post earlier, she was the one who “erased it” because she “wanted to". “I never disappeared,” she said, referring to her absence from the public. She blamed her absence on injuries that may force her to retire at the age of 36. However, one of the two interviewers, L’Equipe’s Marc Ventouillac, said that Shuai “seems to be healthy".

When Marc Ventouillac was asked if the athlete appeared safe, he said, “It’s impossible to say.” He also said that it is possible it's “a part of communication, propaganda, from the Chinese Olympic Committee” to show “there is no problem with Peng Shuai” amid all the concern. “It’s important, I think, for the Chinese Olympic Committee, for the Communist Party and for many people in China to try to show: ‘No, there is no Peng Shuai affair,'” Ventouillac told the wire service. “She answered our questions without hesitating — with, I imagine, answers that she knew. She knew what she was going to say,” Ventouillac said. She said what we expected her to say."

Chinese human rights lawyer Teng Biao told Germany’s Deutsche Welle that he believes that it appeared to be a “forced confession". “They would be forced to say what the Chinese authorities told them to say under great pressure. This is certainly the case with Peng,” he said. According to Andrea Worden, a lecturer in East Asian studies at Johns Hopkins University, Kan’s presence suggested that “the Chinese government was in control of the process and the script.” “He was present to ensure that she would not go off script,” she said.