Alibaba reportedly dismisses female staff who accused ex-boss of sexual assault

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Alibaba Group has dismissed a female employee who accused her former supervisor, Wang Chengwen, of rape and molestation during a business trip earlier this year, The Wall Street Journal reported. According to WSJ, the female employee was handed a dismissal notice on 25 November for reportedly "spreading false information and damaging the company".

According to the notice, the female employee who goes by the name of Zhou, was said to have "violated the internal company code of conduct" by spreading of false information via flyers distributed to other fellow employees.

WSJ said that the "false information" included Zhou claiming she was rapted by executives and that the company did not take action despite knowing about it. Zhou also allegedly posted messages on the company's internal message board and placed banners in the company's cafeteria, WSJ said.

The company claimed that Zhou's actions have brought about "strong concern from society and damaged the company", WSJ added. The dismissal notice was reported to have been issued by Zhejiang TMall Technology, a subsidiary of Alibaba, WSJ reported. MARKETING-INTERACTIVE has reached out to Alibaba for comment.

Late in July, Zhou accused Wang of molestation and rape, adding that she was "pressured" to drink until she was almost unconscious during a dinner with clients. She later woke to find Wang on top of her in a hotel room, kissing and groping her, WSJ reported. These allegations were part of an 11-page account that Zhou posted on Alibaba's internal discussion board. She also previously claimed that several Alibaba managers mishandled the matter and ignored her demand for Wang to be fired.

This later prompted CEO Daniel Zhang to intervene and eventually fire the employee in August. Zhang also said in an internal letter previously that he was "shocked, angered, and ashamed by the incident", demanding a thorough investigation. At the same time, Alibaba also introduced new measures to tackle sexual harassment within the company, including the creation of a dedicated committee for sexual harassment preventing. The committee will consist of five female senior executives, WSJ said. Meanwhile, another team will be created to investigate complaints and improve its policies on dealing with sexual harassment.

Earlier this year, China witnessed a wave of sexual misconduct allegations. Aside from Alibaba, the head of a Chinese charity tackling Hepatitis B discrimination was accused of sexual assault while a presenter on China Central Television was also accused by an intern to have groped her, WSJ said.

More recently, Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai also accused former senior vice premier of China's State Council, Zhang Gaoli, of having sexually assaulted her for a long period of time. This was done via a Weibo post published in November which has since been removed. Thereafter, Peng was not seen in public for weeks, sparking concerns over her well-being and safety. Earlier this month, the International Olympics Committee held a second call with Peng, during which she reconfirmed that she was safe.

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