Ex-Alibaba manager probed for 'forcible indecency', not rape

BEIJING • Police investigating an Alibaba Group Holding employee's sexual assault allegation against her boss have found no evidence of rape, raising questions about what unfolded in a case that has shocked China's technology industry.

Alibaba fired the accused manager last week after the woman employee's account about being raped by her supervisor while on a business trip went viral.

In their initial findings, police said the former manager was suspected of committing "forcible indecency" against the woman, surnamed Zhou, employing a term that can encompass sexual assault.

The manager and a client present at the dinner - since fired by his own employer - have been held for questioning, the police said. So far, no evidence suggested rape has occurred, but the case is still being investigated.

Ms Zhou's allegations, which she published in an 8,000-word account that detailed a week-long ordeal to call attention to her plight, have reverberated through Alibaba's highest echelons. Two senior executives at the e-commerce giant have since resigned and chief executive officer Daniel Zhang called his company's handling of the incident a "humiliation".

According to the police, Ms Zhou attended a dinner on July 27 with her manager, surnamed Wang, along with colleagues and clients in Jinan.

The supervisor and a co-worker escorted Ms Zhou back to her hotel after a bout of heavy drinking. But she was too intoxicated to state her room number and so the Alibaba manager provided the front desk with Ms Zhou's identification document and key.

The Jinan police confirmed that the manager later had a room key made and entered Ms Zhou's hotel room four times.

The manager is suspected of "forcible indecency" upon entering the room a second time at 11.23pm. He bought condoms about 10 minutes later, but collected the items at the front desk only around 10am the next morning, and discarded them eventually. He returned to Ms Zhou's room past midnight twice more.

Police said the client, surnamed Zhang, was also suspected of "forcible indecency" when he accompanied Ms Zhou back to the dinner table after she vomited, as well as after he entered her room at 7.59am the following morning. He left at 9.35am, taking her underwear but leaving a package of unopened condoms.

The case has triggered what many say is a long overdue examination of the ways Chinese women are often treated at work: overlooked, objectified, forced to take part in male-dominated rituals like drinking with clients, and brushed aside when reporting abuse.

Alibaba has moved to establish better protections for its employees even as the investigation continues.

BLOOMBERG