Alibaba Just Fired its Manager Amid Shocking Sexual Assault Case

Amid a shocking sexual assault case that’s rocking China, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. has fired a manager that has been accused of rape.

The identity of the manager has not been revealed but the move comes after an account of an employee went viral on social media. The incident had involved an external client and several executives during a night of heavy drinking in the country’s northeast.

Li Yonghe, who had been appointed just last month to lead a newly created division overseeing much of the company’s non-retail businesses, has also resigned alongside his human resources chief for mishandling the incident.

The allegations had been first reported by the employee on Aug. 2 and according to Chief Executive Officer Daniel Zhang, they had unearthed systemic challenges with the company’s mechanisms.
The CEO’s comments were seen in an internal memo seen by Bloomberg News.

To start the week off, one of the top trending items on Monday with over 800 million views on China’s Weibo service, backed by Alibaba, was an online declaration about 6,000 employees banding together to protest and overhaul “systemic inadequacies and a lack of protection for female employees.”

Alibaba’s shares fell more than 4% in Hong Kong.

“Behind everyone’s deep concern about the incident was not just sympathy and care for the traumatized colleague but also tremendous sadness for the challenges in Alibaba’s culture,” wrote Zhang in a memo.

The CEO issued an impassioned plea to “Aliren,” or Alibaba’s people, in his memo. “This incident is a humiliation for all Aliren. We must rebuild, and we must change.”

It was in 2018 that JD.com Inc. founder Richard Liu was arrested in the U.S. in 2018 and accused of raping a 21-year-old female Chinese undergraduate.

”Even if this doesn’t lead to serious consequences for Alibaba, I think people are learning from this kind of protesting experience,” said Pocket Sun, co-founder of SoGal Ventures. “If this is not the real turning point, then the next one might be, or the one after the next might be, because people get less tolerant over time.”

“We must use this opportunity to reflect and rebuild our thinking and actions fully,” Zhang also wrote. “Change is only possible if everyone takes individual action, but it must start at the top. It starts with me. Please wait and watch.”

Disclaimer: We have no position in any of the companies mentioned and have not been compensated for this article.