Man gets 18-month term for sex assault of Alibaba employee

By ZEN SOO
Associated Press

HONG KONG (AP) — A Chinese court has sentenced a man to 18 months in prison after an Alibaba employee went public about being sexually assaulted at a business dinner. The man represented a supermarket in talks for business dealings with the Chinese e-commerce giant and met the Alibaba employee at a business dinner. She said she was sexually assaulted at the dinner and later in her hotel room. She posted her accusations on Alibaba’s internal message board after she said she had received no satisfactory response from the company. Alibaba fired the woman, alleging she spread false information and negatively impacted the company. That occurred even as the company pledged to improve its culture.