The independent non-executive director of Chinese telecom giant ZTE has resigned in the wake of an explosive report alleging that he has been raping his adopted daughter since she was 14 years old.

Bao Yuming (鲍某明), 48, a lawyer educated in both China and the United States, first got to know the mother of Li Xingxing (pseudonym) in April 2015, according to the report from the Guangzhou-based South Reviews magazine. Bao said that he always wanted to have a child and hoped to “form a family” with the mother and daughter.

Because of his “caring” attitude and impressive professional resume, it only took half a year for Bao to gain the mom’s trust. She told her daughter that Bao would be “reliable” and “just like a real dad.” He was granted guardianship of Li.

In November 2015, Bao took his adopted daughter to Beijing for school. She was 14 years old. Li says she was sexually assaulted by Bao for the first time that year.

Bao then moved to the Shandong city of Yantai where he allegedly mentally and sexually abused Li for years. He manipulated the teenager into staying quiet by installing cameras inside his apartment and forcing her to remove all of her contacts on WeChat.

Li says that he also made her watch child pornography.

In April 2019, Li tried to take her own life. Afterward, she was brought to police and revealed to them what had been happening to her inside of the apartment.

Yantai police opened an investigation into Bao, however, they dismissed the case by the end of the month.

Afterward, Li again tried to take her own life

She filed another case against Bao in September but he has not been arrested and there has been no update on the case. When Li went searching for answers, an officer told her that he would lose his job if he took on the case.

Since the South Reviews report on the scandal was published on Thursday, it has become the biggest story on Chinese social media with netizens accusing the Yantai police department of covering up the years of abuse.

Those views have only been reinforced by a viral video of Nanjing police calling their colleagues in Yantai at Li’s behest, asking for details about the case. In the four-minute call, the Yantai officer refuses to provide information while dodging around questions.

On top of his position at ZTE, Bao has also lost his other job as chief legal officer of Yantai Jereh Oilfield Services Group, a listed company. Jereh confirmed on Thursday that their contract with Bao had been terminated.

Bao received graduate degrees from Tianjin University and the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut and has worked for years as a respected lawyer.

In 2011, he even wrote a blog post arguing that China’s child molestation laws don’t do enough to protect minors.