Peng Shuai in 2017. Photo credits: JC on Flickr. (CC BY-SA 2.0) Tennis star Peng Shuai’s and Professor Gulnar Obul’s personal stories differ, but the course of their stories, especially the dramatic changes in their statements after reemerging in public, are quite similar. The similarity proves that Chinese citizens can mysteriously transform from captives into actors. In November 2021, Peng Shuai went missing for 15 days after publishing a “negative” post about Zhang Gaoli, former vice-premier of China. According to screenshots of that post, the tennis champion accused Zhang of pressuring her…