Chongqing Times
July 16, 2008

Today quite a few newspapers reported on how a court in Sichuan sentenced a man convicted of sexual harassment to five months in jail.

According to the newspapers, this is the first time that an offender convicted of "sexual harassment" has been given to jail time in China. However, this claim is somewhat misleading; while the term "sexual harassment" was only introduced into Chinese law as recently as 2005, similar sexual offenses were previously prosecuted using different names.

The 29-year-old offender Liu Lun was the human resources manager of a company in Chengdu. The victim, Chen Dan, was new to the company. On March 11, the day after Chen was hired, Liu asked her into his office after work. In his office, he embraced and kissed her, ignoring her protests, and bruised her when she tried to resist. When the police, who were called by a neighboring worker, arrived to arrest Liu, Chen had already left.

One of the articles on the incident quoted an "expert" who said that the court's decision should serve as a warning to those who believe "sexual harassment" is not serious enough to be a crime.