A man surnamed Bao who is suspected of sexually abusing his "adopted" teenage daughter for four years has triggered nationwide anger and been removed from his positions as senior official with two companies.

The investigation is ongoing and evidence is being collected, the Zhifu branch of the Yantai public security bureau in Shandong province said on Weibo on Thursday.

Bao, who served as a vice-president in charge of legal affairs of Yantai-based Jereh Oilfield Services Group and an independent nonexecutive director of ZTE Corporation, was accused of starting to sexually abuse the girl in 2016 when she was only 14 years old, according to thepaper.cn on Friday.

Bao resigned from ZTE Corporation, while Jereh Oilfield Services Group fired Bao, the companies said.

Driven by superstition, the girl's mother believed she needed somebody to make the girl's life easier, according to a report of thepaper.cn. The mother then sent the girl to Bao as his adopted daughter in September 2015.

The Zhifu branch of Yantai's public security bureau launched the case after the girl reported the abuse in April last year.

But the branch withdrew the case later that month because the evidence was not enough to prove Bao committed a crime.

The bureau reopened the case in October after the girl and her lawyer provided new evidence, according to a notice published on the branch's Weibo account.

The case will be strictly handled in accordance with the law and we will effectively safeguard the rights and interests of the parties, the Zhifu branch said.

Bao, 48, has worked as a lawyer, partner and senior legal adviser in Beijing and Tianjin, and in New York and California since 1996, according to public information.