U.S. media are reporting that a top Chinese Tencent executive has been arrested by Beijing authorities for allegedly sharing personal information collected by WeChat without authorization and handing the data to Sun Lijun, a former vice minister of the Communist Party’s Ministry of Public Security. Sun Lijun was investigated last year for disciplinary violations and was subsequently removed from his post.
The Wall Street Journal reports that senior executives at China’s Tencent have been arrested by Beijing authorities. (Reuters file photo)
The Wall Street Journal reports that sources close to the investigation say the top Tencent executive, Zhang Feng, has been under investigation by Chinese Communist Party officials since early last year for allegedly sharing personal data from Tencent’s messaging software WeChat without authorization, and that Zhang passed the data to former Vice Minister of Public Security Sun Lijun. Sun Lijun is under investigation in Beijing for violating Communist Party regulations.
The report mentions that Tencent Chairman Ma Huateng is not under investigation and is free to leave China, and that Ma traveled to Singapore last year. Zhang Feng is a vice president of Tencent Group, according to a news announcement from the Zhangjiakou City Bureau of Commerce in 2018.
Tencent responded that Zhang Feng has not held a senior or management position at Tencent and is not a vice president of the company.
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