2016年,时任中国副总理张高丽。网球选手彭帅指控张高丽性侵,是对中国政治体制的挑战。2016年,时任中国副总理张高丽。网球选手彭帅指控张高丽性侵,是对中国政治体制的挑战。 Mark Schiefelbein/Associated Press

Before Zhang Gaoli was engulfed in accusations that he had sexually assaulted a tennis champion, he seemed to embody the qualities that the Chinese Communist Party prizes in officials: austere, disciplined, and impeccably loyal to the leader of the day.

在陷入网球冠军选手的性侵指控困境之前,张高丽似乎正是中国共产党所推崇的官员品质的象征:朴素,严肃,对党的在任领导人无比忠诚。

He had climbed steadily from running an oil refinery to a succession of leadership posts along China’s fast-growing coast, avoiding the scandals and controversy that felled other, flashily ambitious politicians. He became known, if for anything, for his monotone impersonality. On entering China’s top leadership, he invited people to search for anything amiss in his behavior.

在中国飞速发展的沿海地区,他从石油公司负责人一路稳步高升,接连担任了一系列领导职务,并避开了让其他野心勃勃的高调政客失足的丑闻争议。他之所以为人所知,恐怕也是因为那沉闷而不近人情的个性。跻身中国最高领导层之后,他还请人们监督他的任何不当作为。

“Stern, low-key, taciturn,” summed up one of the few profiles of him in the Chinese media. His interests, Xinhua news agency said, included books, chess and tennis.

“严肃、低调、不苟言笑”是中国媒体上为数不多的关于他的描述之一。新华社报道称,他的兴趣爱好包括看书、下象棋、以及打网球。

Now the allegation from Peng Shuai, the professional tennis player, has cast Mr. Zhang’s private life under a blaze of international attention, making him a symbol of a political system that prizes secrecy and control over open accountability. The allegation raises questions about how far Chinese officials carry their declared ideals of clean-living integrity into their heavily guarded homes.

而今,职业网球选手彭帅的指控将张高丽的私生活置于国际关注之下,让他成了一个重视保密和控制多于公开问责的政治体制的象征。她的指控引发了人们的质疑,即在戒备森严的家中,中国官员到底将他们宣称的廉洁品质贯彻了几分。

“Zhang epitomized the image of the bland apparatchik that the party has worked hard to cultivate,” said Jude Blanchette, a scholar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

“张高丽所代表的正是中共努力塑造出的乏味官僚形象,”华盛顿智库国际战略研究中心的学者白明(Jude Blanchette)说。

Ms. Peng’s account — that Mr. Zhang coerced her into sex during a yearslong, on-off relationship — has not been corroborated. The Chinese authorities’ vigorous efforts to stifle any mention of the matter suggest there is little chance that Mr. Zhang will ever be called to public account, even if that might clear his name. Neither Ms. Peng nor Mr. Zhang have made any public comment since her post appeared.

彭帅称张高丽与她断断续续地保持了多年的情人关系,并曾强迫她与之发生性关系,这些说法尚未得到证实。中国当局极力阻止任何人提及此事,说明张高丽基本不可能接受公众质询,哪怕这么做可能为他正名。自彭帅发文以来,彭帅和张高丽都没有发表任何公开评论。

“One would have to imagine, sadly, that in an opaque and patriarchal system of unchecked power these sorts of abuses are not uncommon,” Mr. Blanchette added.

白明还表示,“遗憾的是,人们必然会联想到,在一个不透明也不受约束的家长制权力体系中,类似的侵犯行为恐怕并不罕见。”
2019年,中国选手彭帅在澳网公开赛对战加拿大选手尤金妮·布沙尔的女单比赛中发球。
2019年,中国选手彭帅在澳网公开赛对战加拿大选手尤金妮·布沙尔的女单比赛中发球。 Jewel Samad/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

When Ms. Peng, 35, posted her accusation on the popular social media platform Weibo on the night of Nov. 2, she took readers into the cosseted personal lives of the Communist Party’s elite.

11月2日晚,当35岁的彭帅在热门社交媒体平台微博上发出自己的指控时,她将受众带入了中共权贵不受约束的私生活之中。

In Ms. Peng’s post, addressed to Mr. Zhang, she said the two had met more than a decade earlier when her career was taking off and his was nearing its peak. At the time, she wrote, he was the Communist Party chief of Tianjin, a northern port city, and he told her his political position made it impossible for him to divorce his wife.

在写给张高丽的微博中,彭帅声称二人于十多年前相识,当时她的网球生涯正处于起步阶段,而他的政治生涯正步入巅峰。她写道,当时他是北方港口城市天津的市委书记,他告诉她,自己的政治职务让他没办法与妻子离婚。

Mr. Zhang dropped contact with her, the post said, after ascending to the Communist Party’s highest body, the Politburo Standing Committee, a post he held for five years. During this time, he was entrusted with overseeing China’s initial preparations for the 2022 Winter Olympics, which is now being overshadowed by the furor.

该微博声称,张高丽在升至中共最高权力机关中央政治局常委会之后与她断绝了联系。他担任常务委员有五年,在此期间,他负责监督中国2022年冬奥会的初步准备工作,如今这届冬奥会已经被喧嚣所笼罩。

About three years ago, after stepping down, Mr. Zhang called the head of a tennis academy to summon Ms. Peng to play tennis with him at a party-owned hotel in Beijing, called the Kangming, that plays host to retired officials, according to her post.

她在微博中写道,大约三年前,卸任后的张高丽联系了一家网球培训中心的负责人,邀请彭帅到北京康铭大厦和他一起打网球,这家酒店为中共所有,专门接待退休官员。

Later that day, acco, he forced her to have sex in his home. They resumed a relationship, but he insisted it remain furtive. She had to switch cars to be able to enter the government compound where he lives in Beijing, she wrote. He warned her to tell no one, not even her mother.

当天晚些时候,他在家中强迫她发生了性行为。他们恢复了情人关系,但他坚持这必须保密。她写道,她必须换车才能进入他在北京居住的政府大院。他警告她不要告诉任何人,包括她的母亲。

With rarely a word or hair out of place, Mr. Zhang has seemed an unlikely protagonist for a scandal that has rippled around the world. He belongs to a generation of officials who rose after the upheavals of the Cultural Revolution, taking on the self-effacing ethos of collective leadership under Hu Jintao, who preceded the country’s current leader, Xi Jinping.

一言一行都一丝不苟的张高丽,看上去不像那种能成为震动全球的丑闻主角的人。他是在文革剧变后崛起的一代官员,秉守习近平的前任胡锦涛为首的集体领导层那种力求不被人注意的作风。
2008年,在天津举行的商贸论坛中,时任天津市委书记的张高丽(右)会见台湾国民党前主席连战。
2008年,在天津举行的商贸论坛中,时任天津市委书记的张高丽(右)会见台湾国民党前主席连战。 Andy Wong/Associated Press

Mr. Zhang, who turned 75 the day before Ms. Peng’s post appeared, was born in a fishing village in Fujian Province. According to official accounts, his father died when he was a child. He began studying economics at Xiamen University in Fujian, but his education was cut short by the Cultural Revolution, when Mao Zedong largely shut down university classes.

在彭帅发帖的前一天刚满75岁的张高丽出生于福建省的一个渔村。据官方记载,他儿时就失去了父亲。他曾在福建的厦门大学攻读经济学,但文革中断了他的教育,当时毛泽东基本上关闭了大学的课堂。

In 1970, he was assigned to work at oil fields in southern China, where he first heaved bags of cement, according to official profiles.

据官方介绍,他在1970年被分配到中国南方的石油公司,在那里,他一开始的工作是搬运水泥。

Within years, he climbed into management. As Deng Xiaoping and other leaders shepherded China into an era of market reforms, Mr. Zhang became one of those officials whose economic expertise and smattering of higher education marked them for promotion. He perfected the methodical, button-down manner of a cadre who had submerged his life in the party hierarchy.

他在几年之间就升至管理层。随着邓小平等领导人带领中国进入市场改革时代,张高丽也成为了拥有经济专业知识和接受过些许高等教育的官僚中的一员。作为把个人生活全部投入到中共统治集团中的一名干部,他始终保持着严谨保守的做派。
这张资料图是2016年中共中央委员会在北京的一次会议,参与者是包括张高丽(左一)在内的中央政治局常务委员。
这张资料图是2016年中共中央委员会在北京的一次会议,参与者是包括张高丽(左一)在内的中央政治局常务委员。 Li Xueren/Xinhua, via Associated Press

He served as the party leader of Shenzhen, the city next to Hong Kong that Deng promoted as a showpiece of China’s newfound commercial dynamism. He won the favor of Deng’s successor, Jiang Zemin, and by the early 2000s was put in charge of Shandong, a province crowded with ports and factories.

他担任过深圳市委书记,邓小平曾将这座毗邻香港的城市宣传为中国新商业活力的典范。他赢得了邓小平继任者江泽民的青睐,在21世纪初被任命为港口和工厂都十分密集的山东省的省委书记。

In 2007, he was promoted to oversee Tianjin, the provincial-level port whose fortunes had flagged while other coastal areas boomed. Mr. Zhang pushed plans to convert a drab industrial area of Tianjin into a modern business precinct — a “new Manhattan” — that would attract multinationals and wealthy residents.

2007年,他被提拔到天津这个省级港口城市,当其他沿海地区蓬勃发展之时,这里的经济却不进反退。张高丽推动了“新曼哈顿”计划,欲将天津从单一工业城市改造为现代商业中心,以吸引跨国企业和富裕居民。

That project has faltered under debt and inflated expectations, but Mr. Zhang moved upward into the central leadership in 2012. He became executive vice premier: in effect, China’s deputy prime minister.

这一项目因债务和期望过高陷入困境,但张高丽在2012年还是升至中央领导层。他成为常务副总理,实际上也就是中国的副总理。

“I hope that all the party members, officials and members of the public in this city will continue to exercise strict oversight over me,” Mr. Zhang said in 2012 as he left Tianjin for Beijing.

“我希望全市党员干部群众继续对我进行严格监督,”2012年,张高丽在离开天津前往北京任职时表示。

Mr. Zhang’s experience managing big projects made him a safe pair of hands for some of the initiatives that Mr. Xi used to make his mark. He negotiated oil deals with Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin, and promoted Mr. Xi’s Belt and Road Initiative.

管理大型项目的经验,使张高丽在一些曾让习近平声名大噪的举措上成为了可靠的帮手。他与俄罗斯总统普京谈判石油协议,并推动了习近平的“一带一路”倡议
在2013年圣彼得堡的一次会晤中,俄罗斯总统普京与时任中国常务副总理张高丽相互致意。
在2013年圣彼得堡的一次会晤中,俄罗斯总统普京与时任中国常务副总理张高丽相互致意。 Pool photo by Dmitry Lovetsky

Mr. Zhang oversaw the early preparations for the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. In 2016, he met with Thomas Bach, the president of the International Olympic Committee, as Mr. Bach was visiting the city.

张高丽还负责北京2022年冬奥会的前期筹备工作。2016年国际奥委会主席托马斯·巴赫访问北京时与张高丽进行了会晤

It was Mr. Bach who on Sunday held a video call with Ms. Peng intended to reassure athletes and others worried about her disappearance in the days after her post appeared.

巴赫周日与彭帅进行了视频通话,目的是让运动员和其他担心她的人放心,他们在她发帖后失踪的这些天里为她担忧。

Earlier in Mr. Xi’s term, lurid reports about officials’ sexual misdeeds at times surfaced in state media, disclosures intended to signal that he was serious about purifying the party.

在习近平任期的早些时候,有时会出现关于官员性行为不端耸动官方报道,这些披露旨在表明他对净化党内的认真态度。

Mr. Xi’s priority now appears to be fending off any odor of scandal tainting the party’s top echelons. References to Ms. Peng’s account were nearly wiped off the internet inside China. A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman, Zhao Lijian, suggested that the attention around Ms. Peng had become “malicious hype.” Official media have not shown or reported on Mr. Zhang since Ms. Peng went public; nor have they directly challenged her account.

现在,习近平的首要任务似乎是抵御任何玷污党的高层的丑闻。提及彭帅指控的言论几乎从中国境内的互联网上消失了。中国外交部发言人赵立坚表示,围绕彭帅的关注已成为“恶意炒作”。彭帅公开指控后,官方媒体未曾曝光或报道过张高丽;他们也没有直接质疑她的说法。

“Even to deny her allegations would be to give them a level of credence that you couldn’t then roll back,” said Louisa Lim, a former journalist who long worked in China and the author of “The People’s Republic of Amnesia.”

“即使否认她的指控,也会给这些指控一定程度的可信度,这样你就覆水难收,”曾在中国工作多年的前记者、《失忆人民共和国》一书的作者林慕莲(Louisa Lim)说。

When Mr. Zhang retired in 2018, he dropped from public view, as is the norm in Chinese politics. Retirement often comes with perks like high quality health care, housing and travel within China, but also some monitoring.

张高丽于2018年退休后从公众视野中消失,这是中国政治的常态。退休通常会带来一些福利,比如高质量的医疗保健、住房和中国境内的旅行,但也有一些监控。
张高丽(中)负责2022年北京冬奥会的初期筹备工作。由于外界对彭帅人身安全的担忧,中国正面临来自国际奥委会的压力。
张高丽(中)负责2022年北京冬奥会的初期筹备工作。由于外界对彭帅人身安全的担忧,中国正面临来自国际奥委会的压力。 Mark Schiefelbein/Associated Press

“Once you retire, your movements are reported to the party’s department of organization,” said Minxin Pei, a professor of government at Claremont McKenna College in California who studies the party.

“一旦你退休,你的动向就会被报告给党的组织部门,”加州克莱蒙特麦肯纳学院研究共产党的政府学教授裴敏欣说。

In her post, Ms. Peng seemed to indicate that she and Mr. Zhang had recently had a disagreement, and that he had once again “disappeared” as he did before. She wrote, though, that she expected that her account would have little effect on Mr. Zhang’s eminence.

在彭帅的帖子中,她似乎在暗示她和张高丽最近产生了分歧,他又像以前一样“消失了”。不过,她写道,她预计她的叙述不会对张高丽的声望产生什么影响。

“With your intelligence and wits,” she wrote, “I am sure you will either deny it, or blame it on me, or you could simply play it cool.”

她写道:“以你的智商某(谋)略你一定否认或者可以反扣给我,你可以如此玩世不恭。”

Claire Fu、Liu Yi对本文有研究贡献。

储百亮(Chris Buckley)是《纽约时报》首席中国记者。他成长于澳大利亚悉尼,在过去30年中的大部分时间内居住在中国。在2012年加入《纽约时报》之前,他是路透社的一名记者。欢迎在Twitter上关注他:@ChuBailiang

Steven Lee Myers是《纽约时报》北京分社社长。他自1989年加入时报,曾在莫斯科、巴格达和华盛顿多地进行报道。他著有《新沙皇:弗拉基米尔·普京的崛起和统治》(The New Tsar: The Rise and Reign of Vladimir Putin)一书。欢迎在TwitterFacebook上关注他。

翻译:纽约时报中文网

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