A human resources manager has become the first Chinese man to be found guilty of sexual harassment, in a case that highlights the continuing struggle towards equality for women in China.

Liu Lun was accused of inviting one of his women staff, Chen Dan, into his office to discuss work matters but then told her that he wanted to become her boyfriend. When the woman turned him down, he held her by the neck and kissed her.“Miss Chen screamed out and fought back. Colleagues next door heard her and called the police,” state media said.

Liu, who works for a company in southwestern China, was found guilty of using force to act indecently towards a woman, and ordered to serve time in jail. It was the first time that a law enacted in 2005 had been used successfully to prosecute a suspected offender.

Mao Zedong famously declared that women “hold up half the sky” but in modern China they face challenges at all stages of life, ranging from illegal sex-selective abortions by couples who discover that they are expecting a girl and would prefer a boy, to a preference for men in many jobs.

Many women said that they often saw situations of sexual harassment in public and overheard obscene comments from men to women in offices but few realised that this type of behaviour constituted a violation of women's rights.

Women have tried, and failed, to bring charges of sexual harassment against colleagues in the past, provoking widespread discussion of the need for greater recognition of challenges faced in the workplace.

It is regarded as entirely routine for a woman employee to take responsibility for standing up and serving tea during meetings while her male colleagues continue to hold discussions.

An ancient Chinese saying, “to value sons and ignore daughters”, has resulted in a gender imbalance in a country where a population explosion in the 1960s forced the Government to enforce a “one couple, one child” family planning policy in the late 1970s.

Official figures show that about 119 boys are born for every 100 girls compared with the norm in ordinary populations of 106 boys to 100 girls. The emphasis on the value of men in society, to continue the family line and to bring honour, is reflected in the Communist Party hierarchy. Of the 25 members of the Politburo only one is a woman and she does not have a seat on the all-powerful Standing Committee.

Inappropriate behaviour

— One online survey found that 79 per cent of women respondents had experienced sexual harassment

— 22 per cent of Chinese men had suffered sexual harassment, the same survey found

— 40 per cent of women working for private or foreign firms had been targets of harassment compared with 18 per cent of those in state-owned companies, a study by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences found

— Another survey found women identified six types of harassment: inappropriate sexual advances by male superiors; husbands’ harassment of former wives; groping on buses; catcalls on the street; and sexual misconduct by doctors and teachers

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