How rape allegations at Alibaba sparked an internal firestorm

China Watch is a regular segment that looks at the country’s tech sector through a local lens. This edition looks at the rape allegation involving an Alibaba employee, based on the reporting of Chinese tech media site 36kr.

Many in China were eagerly anticipating the arrival of autumn on August 7. Instead, the country was swept up by a chilling account of sexual assault published by a female employee of Alibaba.

In the week-long ordeal that followed, many questions were raised. What took Alibaba so long to hold the culprit accountable? How did the company, which prides itself on its values, fall to such ignominy?

At the same time, what is arguably China’s most high-profile #MeToo case does not only reveal the internal failings of a company, but it also exposes the dark underbelly of the country’s tech giants.

Amid the outrage, stronger voices for gender equality are emerging. A moment of reckoning for Alibaba may shape up to become a cultural watershed moment for China.

Breaking her silence

Before the sexual assault came under public scrutiny, Zhou, the victim whose full name has never been disclosed, kept her silence for almost 10 days.

On July 27, she was allegedly pressured by her colleague, Wang Chengwen, to attend a business trip in Jinan, a city in China’s Shandong province, to meet Zhang Guo, a client representing Jinan Hualian Supermarket.

According Zhou’s police testimony and her first-person account, she woke up from a drunken stupor the next morning and discovered that she had been raped by Wang. CCTV footage obtained by the police revealed that Wang had entered her room four times that evening.

Police investigators so far have refuted Zhou’s allegations that she was forced to go on the business trip and drink alcohol during the meeting. They also claim that she was designated as the person-in-charge of arranging the follow-up meeting with Zhang.

In addition, the investigators found that Wang wasn’t the sole culprit: Zhang entered Zhou’s room as well and “sexually molested” her in the morning of July 28, even leaving behind a pack of unopened condoms.

Zhou then reported the incident to Alibaba’s human resources department and upper management on August 2. Her pleas, however, fell on deaf ears, according to a now-popular account posted on the company’s intranet.

An official statement from Alibaba appears to affirm this. Expressing disappointment with the delayed responses by relevant team leaders who were first notified about the incident, the company added that it “did not make timely decisions nor took appropriate actions.”

In her account, Zhou said that she had contacted Wang’s direct manager, the HRGs (HR generalist, a position unique to Alibaba that’s equivalent to an HR business partner) in charge of the business unit and group she was in, the business unit leader, and even the group president. She claimed that no one gave her a “single, reasonable” response.

Zhou made an even louder cry for help. In a video posted on the company’s intranet on August 6, she seems to be at the No. 8 cafeteria in the Hangzhou headquarters and shouting, “An Alibaba manager has raped his female subordinate, and the company doesn’t care.” That video was “deleted shortly” after it was posted.

Then came her bombshell, first-person recounting of events, which was . first shared on Maimai -a Glassdoor-like forum where workers in China can post anonymously – by a whistleblower on August 7. After that, Zhou’s story became the top trending post on Alibaba’s intranet.

“Our executives can no longer speak sensibly”

“Like Buddha overlooking all sentient beings below”

Growing pains

Industry-wide problem

Light at the end of the tunnel?