Female Employees at Alibaba were sexually assaulted The “Drinking Culture” cause public outrage

An employee of the Chinese tech giant Alibaba accusing sexual assault by her boss and customers，which come under intense scrutiny over the weekend.

Alibaba group said on Aug. 9 that it had fired the employees who being accused and the related senior managers had resigned or taken internal disciplinary actions. Police in Jinan, the city where the incident occurred, said on Monday that they were investigating the allegations of abuse.

Since the incident took place after the party and the customer’s dinner and drink, it also triggered discussion and criticism on the Chinese Internet about Alibaba’s internal reaction mechanism and China’s “escort culture”.

What Happened

On August 7, an 11-page self-statement by a female Ali employee was posted on the Internet and widely shared across social media platforms.
According to the PDF, on July 27, when she was on a business trip in Jinan, Shandong Province, her team leader invited her to have dinner with a client after a meeting. She “dared not refuse and could not refuse” several times at the table, and soon became drunk and lost her mind.
According to the statement, a merchant employee groped her during a meal and her boss choose to “let it go.” After the dinner, her supervisor entered her room several times.
She said she woke up naked in bed the next morning with no full memory of the night before. After she called the police and reviewed hotel surveillance footage, it was found that her supervisor entered her room four times that night, with the longest entry lasting more than 20 minutes.
The woman said she reported the incident to the company when she returned and demanded that her boss be fired. The company initially agreed to deal with it, but after several negotiations it said it could not fire the complained employee.
She said she also spoke out about the incident at the company to try to get attention, but was chased away by security guards.

China’s job market lacking of the sense of sexual equality
Ali’s decision came 13 days after the female employee reported the incident to the police and a day and a half after the incident was publicized online and attracted widespread public attention.

‘This reflects big problems in the whole system,’ said Yaqiu Wang, China researcher for Human Rights Watch, a nongovernmental organization based in New York. “Until now to see the results, or because of things on weibo, otherwise don’t say now, may never see the results. This shows that China’s corporate culture lacks mechanisms for dealing with sexual harassment and gender awareness. This is a very common Chinese corporate culture.”

We found in a report, which published by New York University and the international Labour Organization in June this year, that it is difficult on right protection of sexual harrasment in China’s workplace,and one of the obstacles is China’s imperfect legal system, containing the definitions of sexual harassment is not clear, excessive reliance on physical evidence which is hard to collect, and lack of responsibility of the employer, and compensation to the victims.

The lack of gender equality protection mechanism and awareness of gender equality in Chinese workplace has become a place for inappropriate sexual harassment.

“The reason why so many people immediately reacted to this incident when it was posted on the Internet is that almost all of you who have lived in China have experienced being called a ‘beautiful woman’ in the workplace. Even if you haven’t been sexually assaulted like she was, you can relate to the situation.” According to Wang, much of the public anger in China over the Alibaba case also stems from the continuation of the #MeToo movement, which started in the United States and fought sexual harassment.

“Drinking Culture” should be resisted
Over the weekend, Chinese social media flooded with outrage over the Alibaba incident. As of press time, the hot search “Ali female employee violated” has been viewed more than 800 million times. Not only are Internet users unhappy with the handling of Alibaba, China’s largest e-commerce company, but more women are stepping forward to share their experiences and resist the drinking culture at work.

“I really hate this culture of drinking at the table, both for boys and girls. If you don’t want to drink it, he’ll tell you that this position is for women and that’s what it requires. My original company is like this, my leader once said to me, if you can’t drink, why do I hire you?” Miss Yun, who used to work as an accountant in an architectural firm, recalled her past experience. She firmly supports the female employees of Ali and absolutely rejects the liquor culture in the workplace.

“At first I thought being invited was an opportunity given by the leader… “I didn’t know until I had been out of society for a while that drinking in a wine shop doesn’t mean rising in the workplace.” Lu, who works in the technology industry in Beijing, said the matter had been discussed in wechat groups over the weekend and that the details “resonated too much” for Chinese working women.

Ms. Elyse, who works in design in Guangzhou, also said reading about the Alibaba incident made her ‘furious.’ It reminded her of being persuaded to drink as a junior employee, and made her feel it was important for the public to express support and voice. “I think it’s very important, especially as more and more women of my generation reach the middle and senior levels of corporate life, that if we don’t speak up and stop the unspoken rules and sexual harassment in the workplace, the environment for women in the future is only going to get worse.

“My experience over the last few years is that it works.” Yige Dong, a professor of gender studies at the State University of New York at Buffalo, told CNN, “Since the Wu yifan incident, I think the new generation of female Internet users have fully understood that there is no sexual consensus in this drunken culture of sexual relations. This discussion and the #MeToo movement have given people in the society a new awareness and awareness. That’s a good thing.”

“The most powerful weapon in the world is the determination to go for broke,” the Ali female employee concluded in her lengthy essay. I will fight it to the end! Never give in!”

Female Employees at Alibaba were sexually assaulted
The “Drinking Culture” cause public outrage

An employee of the Chinese tech giant Alibaba accusing sexual assault by her boss and customers，which come under intense scrutiny over the weekend.

Alibaba group said on Aug. 9 that it had fired the employees who being accused and the related senior managers had resigned or taken internal disciplinary actions. Police in Jinan, the city where the incident occurred, said on Monday that they were investigating the allegations of abuse.

Since the incident took place after the party and the customer’s dinner and drink, it also triggered discussion and criticism on the Chinese Internet about Alibaba’s internal reaction mechanism and China’s “escort culture”.

What Happened

On August 7, an 11-page self-statement by a female Ali employee was posted on the Internet and widely shared across social media platforms.
According to the PDF, on July 27, when she was on a business trip in Jinan, Shandong Province, her team leader invited her to have dinner with a client after a meeting. She “dared not refuse and could not refuse” several times at the table, and soon became drunk and lost her mind.
According to the statement, a merchant employee groped her during a meal and her boss choose to “let it go.” After the dinner, her supervisor entered her room several times.
She said she woke up naked in bed the next morning with no full memory of the night before. After she called the police and reviewed hotel surveillance footage, it was found that her supervisor entered her room four times that night, with the longest entry lasting more than 20 minutes.
The woman said she reported the incident to the company when she returned and demanded that her boss be fired. The company initially agreed to deal with it, but after several negotiations it said it could not fire the complained employee.
She said she also spoke out about the incident at the company to try to get attention, but was chased away by security guards.

China’s job market lacking of the sense of sexual equality
Ali’s decision came 13 days after the female employee reported the incident to the police and a day and a half after the incident was publicized online and attracted widespread public attention.

‘This reflects big problems in the whole system,’ said Yaqiu Wang, China researcher for Human Rights Watch, a nongovernmental organization based in New York. “Until now to see the results, or because of things on weibo, otherwise don’t say now, may never see the results. This shows that China’s corporate culture lacks mechanisms for dealing with sexual harassment and gender awareness. This is a very common Chinese corporate culture.”

We found in a report, which published by New York University and the international Labour Organization in June this year, that it is difficult on right protection of sexual harrasment in China’s workplace,and one of the obstacles is China’s imperfect legal system, containing the definitions of sexual harassment is not clear, excessive reliance on physical evidence which is hard to collect, and lack of responsibility of the employer, and compensation to the victims.

The lack of gender equality protection mechanism and awareness of gender equality in Chinese workplace has become a place for inappropriate sexual harassment.

“The reason why so many people immediately reacted to this incident when it was posted on the Internet is that almost all of you who have lived in China have experienced being called a ‘beautiful woman’ in the workplace. Even if you haven’t been sexually assaulted like she was, you can relate to the situation.” According to Wang, much of the public anger in China over the Alibaba case also stems from the continuation of the #MeToo movement, which started in the United States and fought sexual harassment.

“Drinking Culture” should be resisted
Over the weekend, Chinese social media flooded with outrage over the Alibaba incident. As of press time, the hot search “Ali female employee violated” has been viewed more than 800 million times. Not only are Internet users unhappy with the handling of Alibaba, China’s largest e-commerce company, but more women are stepping forward to share their experiences and resist the drinking culture at work.

“I really hate this culture of drinking at the table, both for boys and girls. If you don’t want to drink it, he’ll tell you that this position is for women and that’s what it requires. My original company is like this, my leader once said to me, if you can’t drink, why do I hire you?” Miss Yun, who used to work as an accountant in an architectural firm, recalled her past experience. She firmly supports the female employees of Ali and absolutely rejects the liquor culture in the workplace.

“At first I thought being invited was an opportunity given by the leader… “I didn’t know until I had been out of society for a while that drinking in a wine shop doesn’t mean rising in the workplace.” Lu, who works in the technology industry in Beijing, said the matter had been discussed in wechat groups over the weekend and that the details “resonated too much” for Chinese working women.

Ms. Elyse, who works in design in Guangzhou, also said reading about the Alibaba incident made her ‘furious.’ It reminded her of being persuaded to drink as a junior employee, and made her feel it was important for the public to express support and voice. “I think it’s very important, especially as more and more women of my generation reach the middle and senior levels of corporate life, that if we don’t speak up and stop the unspoken rules and sexual harassment in the workplace, the environment for women in the future is only going to get worse.

“My experience over the last few years is that it works.” Yige Dong, a professor of gender studies at the State University of New York at Buffalo, told CNN, “Since the Wu yifan incident, I think the new generation of female Internet users have fully understood that there is no sexual consensus in this drunken culture of sexual relations. This discussion and the #MeToo movement have given people in the society a new awareness and awareness. That’s a good thing.”

“The most powerful weapon in the world is the determination to go for broke,” the Ali female employee concluded in her lengthy essay. I will fight it to the end! Never give in!”