Rape case sparks fury over China’s work drinking

A high-profile rape allegation at Chinese tech giant Alibaba has sparked a social media storm in recent weeks about the “toxic” work culture of pressuring employees to drink at work gatherings. As public scrutiny of corporate misbehaviour grows in China, can the age-old tradition of business drinking be dropped forever?

Roughly every two weeks, Mingxi must join her colleagues after work for drinks, something she dreads doing.

After all, it’s not just about grabbing a few pints at the corner pub.

Instead, it’s often a drawn-out affair involving forced smiles with clients and formal toasting etiquette – and she never feels comfortable.

“I always worry that things can get out of hand, even though I’m quite good at holding my drink,” the 26-year-old Guangzhou-based public relations consultant told the BBC.

“Sometimes, people make inappropriate sexual jokes, and I have to pretend to find them funny.”

Mingxi is not going by her real name as she did not want her identity revealed.

Her experience is shared by other young Chinese workers who feel pressured into attending such events, in a country where building guanxi – or personal relationships – is key to securing business deals and good standing in the eyes of upper management.

China’s tradition of business binge drinking is once again in the spotlight, after a rape allegation against a senior manager at Chinese tech giant Alibaba.

According to a female employee’s 11-page account of the incident, which went viral on microblogging platform Weibo last month, she was allegedly raped while unconscious after a “drunken night” on a work trip.

Accusing her superiors of ordering her to drink excessively at a business dinner, she said she had woken up later in her hotel room naked, with no recollection of the evening’s events.

After obtaining security footage, she said that the manager had gone into her room four times during the night.

Alibaba sacked the manager and said that he would “never be rehired”.

But Chinese prosecutors have since dropped the case, with lawyers saying that the “forcible indecency” committed by the man was not a crime. Police said he would remain under detention for 15 days “as punishment”, but the investigation was closed.

Still, it has prompted a social media storm – not just about sexual harassment at the workplace, but also the “toxic” tradition of coercing employees to drink excessively while at work social events.

On Weibo, the hashtag “how to view workplace drinking culture” has since been viewed more than 110m times, with people sharing their own experiences of being pressured to drink in business settings.

 

Source: BBC