ZTE executive accused of years-long sexual abuse by foster daughter

The China Project illustration by Derek Zheng

A story of a teenage girl being subjected to long-term sexual abuse by her foster father has gripped China, and led to an avalanche of reactions calling for justice for the alleged victim. Per Sixth Tone:

[According to a Chinese media report], the mother of the alleged victim entrusted her daughter to Bào Yùmíng 鲍毓明, a high-ranking director at two large companies, in November 2015. He started raping her a month later, when she was just 14 years old, the report said.

The victim, identified by the pseudonym Xingxing, told South Reviews that Bao forced her to watch child pornography, made her remove her clothes before bed, kept her from going to school, and limited her contact with anyone other than him. He told her all of these things were “normal” between a girl and her father, according to the report.

Since the news emerged on social media on April 9, three organizations that Bao worked for — Chinese telecom firm ZTE (the “other Huawei”), Yantai Jierui Oil Services Company, and Southwest University of Political Science and Law — announced that they had terminated their contractual agreements with Bao.

These dismissals did not do much to quell the public furor over Bao’s behavior. Many people called for legal actions to be taken against the perpetrator, saying that Bao would easily get away with his crimes and find a new position in other companies if no criminal charges were filed.

A number of social media users also took issue with the police in Beijing and Yantai, who had ignored the victim’s allegations multiple times in the past few years. They say that the mishandling of Bao’s case is emblematic of a long-standing problem of how China’s law enforcement agencies systematically fail sexual assault victims seeking justice.