After a sexual assault case went viral, China’s corporate drinking culture is under fire

By Simone McCarthy, CNN

Beijing (CNN) — What started as a business dinner between local officials and executives celebrating a lucrative real-estate deal has sparked public outcry in China, after two men were accused of sexually assaulting a woman in their party.

Authorities in the affluent tech hub of Hangzhou have placed a senior executive and a public official under criminal detention for allegedly “forcibly molesting” the woman at a karaoke bar after their dinner, according to an official report of the ongoing investigation.

The woman was injured and had to be hospitalized, the report said. Both men have been dismissed from their posts.

News of the case swiftly went viral across Chinese social media after being made public in recent days, racking up over half a billion views on the X-like platform Weibo alone.

In the spotlight is China’s entrenched culture of work-related drinking. In a country where men dominate positions of power in business and government, boozy business dinners are notorious for putting female employees in risky positions.

Chinese authorities have repeatedly silenced #MeToo moments in China and cracked down on activism against sexual harassment. Workplace sexual assault cases are rarely filed in court, and women who have brought high-profile cases have faced backlash and censorship.

But this case collides with an issue key to Beijing’s agenda: its years-long bid to crack down on official graft, cronyism and excess. That includes lavish dinners with free-flowing booze, part of a decadent culture that Chinese leader Xi Jinping sees as a threat to the ruling Communist Party’s power and the country’s economic growth.

A slew of op-eds and articles in state media have slammed the “distorted culture of excessive drinking at business dinners,” with those excesses – rather than the alleged sexual assault itself – emerging as the focal point of much of the official blowback.

“The fact that a drinking party incident has sparked such intense public debate stems from people’s high sensitivity to the conduct of public officials, their keen attention to the boundaries of government-business relations, and their deep empathy for the victims,” a commentary in the Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily said.

Local media reports identified the accused men as both linked to government entities – one a local official and the other a prominent executive at a branch of a state-backed real-estate developer – just the kind of officials that Beijing has been spurring to roll back excesses.

Some online commentators drew the connection, with one noting: “In the current climate of high-pressure anti-corruption efforts and strict control over drinking parties, it is truly unbelievable that these people dared to act so brazenly.”

Treated as ‘sacrifices’

But outside the official coverage, the case has also sparked fervent public conversation on social media about the gender dynamics underlying the alleged assault, with users swapping stories about their own experiences dealing with corporate drinking culture.

Many pointed to the details about the incident reported by local media outlets including state-backed The Paper, which described the woman as an employee of a real estate firm who had been called by her boss to join the gathering, where she was pressured to drink.

While male bosses settle business, women are often treated as “sacrifices” or “bargaining chips” at such drinking gatherings, said one commentator in a social media post that drew more than 25,000 likes on Weibo.

Anyone who declines an invitation to these dinners risks being labeled uncooperative and harming their career prospects in China’s hypercompetitive job market, other social media users said – leaving women feeling they have little choice but to attend and not to refuse drinks.

Some commentators also called out how drinking alcohol was being used to “shift blame” for sexual misconduct away from men.

This is not the first time a high-profile sexual assault case has been linked to such a work-related event. In a highly publicized case in 2021, a young female employee at tech giant Alibaba accused her boss and a client of sexually assaulting her following a business dinner.

In a rare judicial win in such cases, the client was handed 18 months in prison. But the woman who made the accusation, sharing her story in an essay on the company’s intranet, was ultimately fired. The court dismissed the case against her manager, who also lost his job.

China has tightened laws around workplace sexual harassment in recent years. In 2023, it implemented new rules that require an employer to take certain measures to prevent sexual harassment of women. A revision to the country’s civil code in 2021 also allowed people to file sexual harassment claims against alleged offenders, but critics say legislation overall remains underdeveloped and underused.

In Hangzhou, the latest assault claims have seen multiple companies initiate internal accountability measures, according to political news outlet Guancha, while the official investigation is ongoing.

In their statement, Hangzhou authorities pledged to “deal with the matter seriously … without any leniency.”

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