The two were accompanied on the video call by the Chinese sports official, Li Lingui, as well as the chairperson of the Athletes’ Commission, Emma Terhu. The IOC did not provide CNN with access to the video.
The video comes after one of China’s most famous sports stars, Peng, accused former Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli of forcing her to have sex at his home, according to images from a since-deleted social media post on November 2.
She has not appeared in public directly since the accusation, leading many tennis players to express their concern on social media, using the hashtag #WhereIsPengShuai.
The Women’s Tennis Association and the United Nations have called for an investigation into her sexual assault allegations.
According to the IOC statement, Ping thanked the committee for concern about her well-being and insisted that she is “safe and well, living at her home in Beijing, but would like her privacy to be respected at this time. That is why she prefers to spend her time with friends and family now.”
The call, which was said to last 30 minutes, appears to be the first known direct contact of Peng and officials outside China since the allegations were made.
“I was relieved to see that Peng Shuai was doing so well, and that was our main concern,” Terhu said. “She seemed relieved. I offered her our support and staying in touch whenever it suited her, which she obviously appreciates.”
Also according to the IOC, Peng accepted an invitation to dine with Bach and Tierhu as well as Li – the former director and Communist Party Secretary of the Tennis Management Center of the General Administration of Sport of China – in January, before the 2022 Winter Olympics.
Following the IOC statement that Bach spoke with Peng, a WTA spokesperson said that was not enough to “reduce or address the WTA’s concerns”.
“It was nice to see Peng Shuai in the recent videos, but they do not alleviate or address the WTA’s concerns about her well-being and ability to communicate without censorship or coercion,” the spokesperson told CNN in a statement.
“This video does not change our call for a full, fair and transparent investigation, without censorship, into her sexual assault allegations, an issue that raised our initial concern.”
WTA president Steve Simon also called for stronger evidence of Bing’s freedom. In a letter to China’s ambassador to the United States, Chen Gang, Simon requests that she either be allowed to leave the country or speak directly on the phone with him without anyone else present.
His demand came as several people linked to the state media and the Chinese sports system tweeted photos and videos that they say show Bing to dinner on Saturday and at a teenage tennis event in Beijing on Sunday.
In all the videos, Beng says very little but is seen smiling. CNN cannot independently verify the videos or confirm when they were filmed.
Although Simon expressed his relief at seeing Peng in these clips, he said his concerns remain.
“It remains unclear whether she is free and able to make decisions and take action on her own, without coercion or outside interference,” Simon said.
Peng’s allegations of explosive sexual assault, made in a post on Weibo, a Twitter-like platform in China, were deleted within 30 minutes of being posted, and any mention of the accusation was quickly erased online.
Until Chinese state media released the videos over the weekend, Peng had not been seen in public for nearly three weeks, which led to a global outcry.
Beijing has faced mounting international pressure to show proof of its safety, including from the United Nations, the US government and the world’s biggest tennis stars.
Simon, the president of the WTA, said he is willing to lose hundreds of millions of dollars in business in China if Peng is not fully explained and her allegations are not properly investigated.
Previous reports on CNN were contributed by Nectar Gan and Mohamed Tawfik.
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