U.S. lawmakers and a number of rights groups are criticizing the International Olympics Committee (IOC) after its president, Thomas Bach, took part in a video phone call with missing Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai. “It has been disturbing to see the IOC take statements from CCP [Chinese Communist Party] propagandists at face value since Peng Shuai’s disappearance, but their promotion of this latest stunt turns the IOC from willfully ignorant into an active participant in the CCP’s mistreatment of Peng,” Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) said in a statement on Nov. 22. McCaul is the lead Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Peng, 35, once ranked world No. 1 in women’s doubles, disappeared from the public view after posting on Chinese social media allegations of sexual assault against a retired high-ranking CCP official on Nov. 2. She alleged that former Chinese vice premier Zhang Gaoli coerced her into sex several …