Chinese police detain two in Alibaba sexual assault case

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Two men were detained Saturday on suspicion of sexual assault in a case that shook Alibaba Group, the world’s biggest e-commerce company, Chinese police announced.

The men, identified by the surnames Wang and Zhang, were suspected of the crime of “forcible molestation,” police in the eastern city of Jinan said in a statement. It said they were under “coercive measures,” a euphemism for detention.

There was no evidence to indicate the men committed rape, a different charge under Chinese law, the police statement said.

Alibaba was shaken last week after a female employee’s complaint on an internal company website that she was sexually assaulted by a manager surnamed Wang became public. The woman complained Alibaba failed to act after she reported the incident to its human resources department.

The woman, surnamed Zhou, had flown into Jinan on July 27, the police statement said. Her team successfully signed a deal with Jinan Hualian Supermarket and decided to celebrate that night with a banquet. They invited a man surnamed Zhang from the supermarket as well as his colleagues.

The first assault took place at the dinner, after Zhou had to leave the room to throw up from drinking too much. Zhang from the supermarket chain accompanied her and molested her on the way back to the banquet room, police said.

Later, Wang, the woman's manager at Alibaba, went with another female dinner guest to take the drunken Zhou back to her hotel. After dropping her off in her room, they went to call for taxis.

However, instead of leaving and going back to his hotel, Wang went back inside. He went to the front desk, holding Zhou's national ID card, and had a key made for himself, police said. The hotel had called Zhou to get her consent before giving him the key.

Wang...