Alibaba sexual assault charge in China sparks reflection on alcohol, work and women



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TAIPEI – When accusations of sexual assault by an employee of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. began circulating on the Chinese internet over the weekend, thousands of company employees – and many more online – felt a spark of familiarity around the details of the incident.

The employee’s story, which she detailed in an 11-page account that first circulated within Alibaba before it went viral on the internet in China, struck a chord in part. because many Chinese were well aware of the drinking and peer pressure that had taken place before she was allegedly sexually abused, both by her boss and a client businessman.

Chinese officials say they are still investigating what happened and have declined to share details. But inside and outside Alibaba, which employs more than 250,000 people nationwide, the accuser’s description of being forced by her boss to drink until she was in Drunkenness at a customer dinner in east China’s Jinan City was the focus of attention.

The woman, whose name has not been made public, claimed in her account that one of the patrons at the table kissed and groped her before taking her to a separate room in the restaurant, where he continued to la sexually harass. She wrote that she woke up naked in a hotel room with faint memories of her boss lying on top of her and sexually assaulted her.

In a memo to employees on Monday, Alibaba chief executive Daniel Zhang said the company was “strongly opposed” to what he described as the “ugly culture of forced consumption” mentioned in the employee’s account. Mr. Zhang said in the statement that the case reveals systematic problems in the company’s culture and that he will work to change them.

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