Chinese man jailed for sexual assault of Alibaba employee on work trip

Image source, Reuters

A client of a Chinese e- commerce firm was sentenced to 18 months in jail for sexually abusing a female employee.

The woman was forced to drink alcohol before the assault, according to the court.

After making her allegations public, the woman was fired by the company.

The harassment Chinese women face in the workplace is highlighted in her case. The client is appealing.

In China, the majority of sexual assault cases don't make it to court.

There has been sympathy for the victim, but she has also been criticized for getting drunk. The country's office drinking culture was condemned and the case was handled poorly.

In August of last year, the employee went public with his allegations. She claimed that a senior colleague raped her on the same trip. A criminal case against him was dropped after he was fired.

In December it was revealed that the woman had been fired by the company for spreading false information.

The client has about eight months left to serve his sentence after being in custody for almost a year.

He was found guilty of forcible indecency, sexually assault the victim against her will while she was drunk.

The assaults took place over two days, during their first meeting at a restaurant and the next day in Zhou's hotel room, according to the Global Times.

The woman's account of the incident was published in an 11-page document in which she said her manager raped her in a hotel room while she was unconscious.

There was a social media storm in China.

The woman said the manager coerced her into going to the city of Jinan for a meeting with a client, which is about 600 miles from the head office.

She said she was ordered to drink alcohol by her superiors.

The client kissed her on the 27th. She woke up in her hotel room without her clothes on and had no recollection of the previous night.

According to the woman, the manager went into her room four times during the evening.

The woman said that the incident was reported to the HR department and that she wanted the manager to be fired.

HR initially agreed to the request, but didn't take any further action.

The co-worker was later fired. Two executives resigned after failing to act on the allegation.

The memo said thatAlibaba was against forced drinking culture.

The man accused of rape admitted to having intimate acts with the woman, according to the company.

Although the co-worker's case didn't progress, prosecutors of the court approved the arrest of the client, who went on to be convicted.

One of the most talked about cases on Weibo was the case. Some people said that the co-worker got away too lightly, while others said there wasn't enough evidence against him.

There was a lack of sympathy for the victim on social media despite the fact that her own actions were questioned. There were many posts from men in support of her attacker.

In China, where attacks on women are still common, victims of gender violence struggle to speak up.

She told reporters that she read the verdict.

I don't know what to say. I have been waiting so long for this decision. I feel bad but no one empathises with me.