China ex-official Zhang makes first look since sexual assault declare By Reuters

BEIJING (Reuters) – Chinese language former Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli made his first public look on Sunday since Chinese language tennis star Peng Shuai accused him of sexual assault final 12 months, attending the twentieth Communist Social gathering Congress.

Zhang, 75, walked onstage on the Nice Corridor of the Individuals in Beijing behind President Xi Jinping and different retired and present leaders, and sat within the entrance row of the rostrum for the opening of the twice-a-decade assembly.

He has made no public touch upon the accusation.

Peng made her accusation on social media in November in a publish that was quickly scrubbed from China’s web. She later denied having made the accusation.

Her publish led the Ladies’s Tennis Affiliation to droop tournaments in China and brought about a world outcry over her security.

Zhang was amongst a lot of senior figures, together with Xi’s quick predecessor, Hu Jintao, who joined the occasion basic secretary onstage in a standard present of unity on the opening of a week-long assembly anticipated to resume Xi’s management for a 3rd time period, cementing his place as China’s strongest ruler since Mao Zedong.

Hu, 79, barely unsteady however showing wholesome, adopted instantly behind Xi onto the stage and sat subsequent to Xi.

Wen Jiabao, who preceded Premier Li Keqiang in workplace, additionally attended.

Nonetheless, Jiang Zemin, 96 and Hu’s predecessor, didn’t seem.

Different retired leaders on the podium included different former members of the occasion’s elite Standing Committee, which guidelines China, together with Jia Qinglin and Zeng Qinghong.

Earlier than Xi opened the congress with an almost two-hour speech, delegates bowed their heads for a second of silence for deceased leaders together with Mao, the founding father of the Individuals’s Republic of China, and the reformist Deng Xiaoping.

Deng’s wheelchair-using eldest son Deng Pufang was there too, sitting in a again row on the primary stage.

He was paralysed from the waist down after mysteriously falling from a Peking College constructing in 1968 on the top of the turmoil of the Cultural Revolution unleashed by Mao.