China’s Communist Party leaders have rarely been called to account quite the way they have been in recent days by female tennis greats over a fellow athlete.

With Beijing’s Winter Olympics fast approaching, a sexual-abuse accusation leveled at a retired senior party official has sparked an outcry by the sport’s biggest global names and the organization that runs their tournaments.

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China’s Communist Party leaders have rarely been called to account quite the way they have been in recent days by female tennis greats over a fellow athlete.

With Beijing’s Winter Olympics fast approaching, a sexual-abuse accusation leveled at a retired senior party official has sparked an outcry by the sport’s biggest global names and the organization that runs their tournaments.

What’s more, unlike a previous sports controversy involving the National Basketball Association, tennis stars and the Women’s Tennis Association appear to be prepared to forfeit their financial interests in the country if Chinese officials don’t respond to their satisfaction.

On Sunday, the Chinese tennis star at the center of the uproar, 35-year-old Peng Shuai, took part in a video call with the head of the International Olympic Committee and other officials, who said that she was safe at home and asked for privacy. Ms. Peng hadn’t been heard from or seen in public for nearly two weeks after the accusation was made public on her social-media account.

The meeting followed publication in recent days by journalists at Chinese state-media organizations of photos and videos intended to show Ms. Peng going about her normal life.

The accused Chinese official, Zhang Gaoli, was a member of the powerful Politburo Standing Committee before retiring in 2017.

Photo: dmitry lovetsky/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

It is unclear whether the videos and public appearances will be enough to quell the furor. The IOC’s statement about its call didn’t address the sexual-assault allegation. Chinese officials haven’t commented.

For China, the kerfuffle exposes it to potential criticism that protecting a politician is more important than addressing concerns spurred by the global movement about sexual assault, and it risks damaging the country’s business of hosting major international sporting competitions, just as it hopes to be basking in the Olympic spotlight.

Unlike past tussles with the NBA or human-rights advocates, Beijing has limited scope to blame foreign critics for sparking the controversy, and now has difficult choices: break precedent with a bow to international pressure to investigate a top official or attempt to cow some of the world’s most famous female athletes on a social issue their sport has embraced.

The controversy began when the accusation appeared on the Twitter-like Weibo account belonging to Ms. Peng on Nov. 2. It said Zhang Gaoli, who was a member of the powerful Politburo Standing Committee before retiring in 2017, had forced her to have sex during a relationship that was sometimes consensual and sometimes coerced.

China’s government uses heavy-handed tactics to silence critics, and the private lives of senior party members is especially forbidden territory. Publicly shaming such a senior official in normal times would be futile in China, and the message shared with Ms. Peng’s half-million followers said she felt like “an egg striking a stone.”

Video posted by Chinese state media journalists showed tennis star Peng Shuai making her first public appearance after she disappeared in early November. Peng has raised global concern following a sexual-assault accusation against a retired senior Chinese official. Photo: Twitter/HuXijin_GT The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition

Beijing’s initial response to the accusation followed a relatively ritualized pattern. The item disappeared roughly 20 minutes after it appeared, and references to her, one of the nation’s most celebrated tennis stars, all but disappeared on China’s internet. Soon there worries about her whereabouts.

Then, in a pointed departure from other sports executives who have growth aspirations in China, Steve Simon, chairman of the WTA, which organizes the sport’s marquee tournaments, demanded an investigation into the accusation and Ms. Peng’s well-being. Mr. Simon said the published images of Ms. Peng did little to prove she is safe.

Key will be the actions of global superstars of women’s tennis whose expressions of concern for Ms. Peng went viral around the world, like Serena Williams, Naomi Osaka and WTA founder Billie Jean King. Ms. Williams described Ms. Peng as her peer. Men’s champions Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic and others also chimed in support.

The star players made their comments on social-media platforms that generally aren’t available in China, and there is no sign authorities have blocked online searches of their names in the country.

For China, the timing couldn’t be worse. In around 10 weeks, Beijing will host the Winter Olympics—further turning a spotlight on the safety and whereabouts of Ms. Peng, a three-time Olympian.

Ms. Peng’s video call on Sunday came at the request of the IOC and was set up through the Chinese Olympic Committee. “I was relieved to see that Peng Shuai was doing fine, which was our main concern,” said IOC Athletes’ Commission Chair Emma Terho, who joined the call with IOC President Thomas Bach and a Chinese representative to the organization.

The IOC on Sunday released this photo of President Thomas Bach holding a video call with Peng Shuai.

Photo: greg martin/AFP/Getty Images

The meeting came a day after Hu Xijin, the editor in chief of the state-run tabloid Global Times, shared video that he said was of Ms. Peng attending a dinner the previous evening. Mr. Hu and his colleagues also shared videos of Ms. Peng meeting young players before a weekend youth match in Beijing.

Last week, China’s government-run broadcaster posted what it said was an email from Ms. Peng saying the allegation of sexual assault was untrue and that she was safe.

Mr. Simon issued statements after the email was published and again on Saturday after the video emerged showing Ms. Peng at a restaurant, saying that they didn’t assuage his concerns. “It remains unclear if she is free and able to make decisions on her own, without coercion or external interference,” he said Saturday. The WTA didn’t respond to requests for comment on Monday.

Regardless of whether the efforts by Beijing are successful at quieting the controversy, sports-industry executives and others say the willingness of players and the WTA to speak out could be the beginning of a deepening concern in the sports world about China’s policies with the potential to ripple beyond tennis, not least of all, they say, because China’s slowing economy points to less heady revenues for media rights, sponsorships and other income.

“She could essentially be a tipping point in sporting relations with China and the rest of the world,” said Simon Chadwick, a sports specialist at France’s Emlyon Business School. For governments and sponsors looking toward the Olympics, he added, the tennis player’s plight will resonate much more than other issues such as China’s treatment of its Uyghur Muslims.

When the NBA fell into Beijing’s crosshairs two years ago, after then-Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey angered Beijing with a tweet suggesting allegiance with protesters on Hong Kong streets, the league quickly sought a middle ground: Individuals could express themselves freely on China issues, but the organization itself kept its distance.

Basketball’s biggest stars largely remained silent and LeBron James criticized Mr. Morey as naive. In that case, the NBA was concerned about growth opportunities in China and not damaging relations with sponsors.

“Most team sport athletes tend to be not outspoken,” Mr. Chadwick said.

By contrast, the tennis world’s outpouring of public support for Ms. Peng has been full-throated, a difference that to some degree reflects organizational disparities. Also unlike the NBA situation, the controversy began with a Chinese citizen, not overseas.

Peng Shuai signed oversize tennis balls at a junior tennis meet in Beijing on Sunday in this still image obtained from a social-media video.

Photo: QINGQINGPARIS, VIA REUTERS

Several of the WTA’s tournaments are played in China including its lucrative finals, so any protracted row with Beijing is likely to jeopardize those revenues. But professional tennis is fundamentally an individual sport where power sits with its superstars—not team owners—who would be welcomed elsewhere if tournament play were to disappear in China.

A sports-league executive based in China estimates that the WTA generates $20 million in annual global media rights through roughly a dozen tournaments in China. More income flows from the sports division of Shenzhen-based Gemdale Property Management Group Co., which holds sponsorship, ticket and domestic media rights for the WTA Finals in Shenzhen through 2028. The NBA has said fallout from its 2019 flap cost it hundreds of millions of dollars in China.

Beijing’s conundrum in navigating the controversy around Ms. Peng is compounded by the quickly shifting politics around the global #MeToo movement, which has toppled powerful men who are far better known than the Chinese politician in the accusation posted to Ms. Peng’s account.

Barring a resolution that would satisfy the biggest stars in women’s tennis, it is doubtful whether foreign players and sponsors would participate in a China-based tournament, according to sports-industry executives. “Who is going to show up?” said the league executive.

Any Chinese threats to block tournament play may not much scare the sport’s stars, who don’t have a collective bargaining arrangement as in the NBA that might encourage them to protect league revenues. Like pro golfers, female tennis players work more like independent contractors and are freer to voice their concern so long as #whereispengshuai remains a trending topic on social media.

China’s extreme measures to limit the spread of Covid-19, specifically curtailing its once-busy roster of international sporting events, may give Beijing time to delay reckoning with the controversy over Ms. Peng, said Mark Dreyer, founder of Beijing-based China Sports Insider.

“Until China’s ready to host sports events again, there’s no real decision that has to be made,” he said Saturday on his weekly podcast.

—Raffaele Huang and Bingyan Wang contributed to this article.

Write to James T. Areddy at james.areddy@wsj.com