Tech giants Tencent have come under fire after female employees were subjected to a simulated sex game at a company party.
A clip of the incident has since gone viral across Chinese social media. In the short video, female Tencent employees are seen kneeling in front of male colleagues onstage during an annual staff party. The women are then seen trying open water bottles tucked between the men’s legs with their mouths. Audiences can be heard cheering them on.
Tencent has issued a statement condemning incident, insisting that it will not repeat the mistake.
Critics have claimed the incident reflects the sexism and harassment that exists in the Chinese tech industry. Tencent, which is Asia’s largest company by market cap, does not have any female board members or division chief.
Last year Chinese search engine company Baidu was forced to demote a senior executive after he made sexually predatory comments in an industry presentation.
However, E-commerce giants Alibaba have been praised for its female leadership, having 11/34 partners as women.
Tencent has been expanding into the international gaming market, recently joining with Hollywood sports and entertainment powerhouse WME-IMG. In 2016, the tech giant bought Supercell, the creator Clash of Clans for $8.6 billion.
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