Thanks to Simon, the International Olympic Committee, the NBA, and numerous other entities that, eyes averted, do business with China now look less like the CCP’s partners than the well-compensated minions of a repressive regime steeped in authoritarian ways and human rights abuses.
This was a development nobody could have foreseen for other reasons as well. Simon was the guy who negotiated the 2019 deal that moved the WTA Finals to Shenzhen, China, where winner Ash Barty carried off an obscene (another subject, another time) $4.42 top prize (the largest amount of prize money ever awarded in tennis). It did not help his image when Simon’s first statement when WTA star attraction Maria Sharapova was suspended for doping contained greater admiration for Sharapova than concern for the women who might have been denied a level playing field for competition by Sharapova’s cheating.
“I am very saddened to hear this news about Maria,’ Simon’s statement began. “Maria is a leader and I have always known her to be a woman of great integrity.”
When numerous players, including elite ones, objected to tournaments offering the Russian star wild cards when her suspension was finally lifted, Simon sided with Sharapova and the promoters who were scrambling to cash in on her reappearance.
Simon’s reaction to the plight of Peng must have hit the CCP like an unexpected gut punch. A massive portion of the WTA’s revenue originates in China (The WTA had scheduled 10 tournaments in China in 2022), thanks in large part to Simon’s skill as a negotiator. Hardliners in the CCP were not the only ones taken by surprise. IOC officials, reluctant to challenge the CCP but worried about the growing calls for a boycott of the upcoming winter Olympic Games (in Beijing), tried to defuse the situation as intermediaries. They accomplished little while rattling on about “quiet diplomacy” - a term easily confused with the word, “appeasement.”
Some believe that Simon’s reaction has been excessive. The WTA (and ATP) certainly hold tournaments in other nations with authoritarian rulers, so why pick on China?
Because Peng has a face and a name. Because the chain of events that led to her disappearance—whatever the truth about Peng’s allegations—are crystal clear and well-documented. Because as an organization—even one dedicated to fun and games—the WTA simply could no more look away, whistling, than could the captain of a ship when his daily head count comes up one deckhand short.
Lest you misunderstand the stakes for the WTA, an impasse leading to a break with China could amount to a billion dollar-plus loss of revenue. But think also of the permanent damage done to the image of China should the WTA, perhaps even the ATP, pull up stakes. The danger for the Chinese: loss of face and a snowballing resistance movement in the west.
When a crisis demanded that the real Steve Simon stand up, he did so. And he stood tall.