Alibaba Photo:VCG

Alibaba fired a male manager on Monday accused of sexual misconduct in Jinan, East China's Shandong Province, with two senior executives who mishandled the case- including president of Alibaba intra city retail Li Yonghe and a senior human resource employee - resigning, after a sexual scandal involving Alibaba's employees sparked outrage across China and seriously damaged the Chinese company's public image.  

The police in Jinan visited the hotel which was the site of the alleged incident to investigate and collected evidence. Several employees also accompanied officials to the local police station to assist with the investigation, the paper.cn reported on Tuesday morning.

The paper.cn updated their reporting Tuesday afternoon stating that police have set up a special task force which will pursue the ongoing investigation into the incident. 

A task force member told the paper.cn that there were difficulties arising from the fact that the alleged incident took place in a private space, but the police force will release the investigation results at the earliest opportunity. 

Xia Ke Dao, a WeChat account linked to the People's Daily, commented Monday in a post that the sexual assault incident is enough to make Alibaba feel "shocked, angry and ashamed" as CEO Zhang Yong claimed. Some behemoth enterprises should not be swayed by business logic alone when it comes to developing their business, and must undertake the social responsibility of guiding both internal employees as well as the whole society. 

The post also pointed out that the technology company, which has always emphasized its strong corporate values, permits and encourages an abnormal and backward drinking culture, leading many to question the company's image and brand.  

The company's chief human resource officer Tong Wenhong is issued an internal demerit as punishment, the manager at the center of the sexual assault incident will be permanently barred from joining the company in the future, the CEO of Alibaba Zhang Yong outlined in an internal memo early Monday morning. 

The Alibaba sexual scandal topped search trends on China's social media Sina Weibo on Saturday. Media reports suggest that an Alibaba employee, Wang Chengwen, had forced a female colleague to drink to excess, before raping her.

The victim, whose name is not given, complained that she reported the issue to Alibaba but "received no response." 

Police in Jinan announced on Sunday that an investigation of the sexual misconduct case involving Alibaba employees was underway, and the result will be made public at the earliest available opportunity. 

Alibaba also pledged in an internal memo that it will take further actions to further guarantee employee protection, including opening a special reporting channel for reporting sexual assault, tamping down on forced drinking culture, working with employee representatives and outside experts to establish anti-sexual harassment action principles.    

Global Times