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Tencent condemns onstage display of sexually explicit game at its own party

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By John Glenday, Reporter

January 13, 2017 | 2 min read

Tencent, China’s largest internet portal and owner of messaging app WeChat, has publicly condemned its own annual party after staff staged a display of a sexually suggestive game for those in attendance.

A video of the graphic display, shot by party-goers, depicted female staff kneeling before male colleagues as they attempted to open water bottles tucked between their legs using only their mouths - sparking a wave of soul searching in China about the prevalence of sexism within its tech industry.

After footage of the incident went viral on Twitter and other social media outlets, Tencent condemned the antics and vowed no repeat of such games at any future events.

A spokeperson for Tencent, said: "Tencent strongly condemns all inappropriate behavior, such as those witnessed at the annual party, and as such we have already officially disciplined those responsible for the incident. This is a lesson for the entire business and it is the responsibility of each employee to ensure that such incidents do not happen again. Our company values are central to everything we do. We strive for a mutually respectful and healthy corporate culture and takes its corporate social responsibility seriously. Tencent would like to take this opportunity to issue our sincerest apologies to all our stakeholders."

The display has also shocked the wider tech community which had been thought to have been making progress toward eliminating sexism, after Alibaba was forced to withdraw a job advert two years ago which sought women with porn-star looks to act as office cheerleaders.

As of now, however, none of Tencent’s C-suite executives, board chiefs or division members are female.

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