Tencent Holdings Ltd (騰訊) said an employee is under investigation for alleged corruption in his personal dealings, rejecting a report that the probe involved the unauthorized transfer of WeChat (微信) data.
The probe of Zhang Feng (張峰) does not involve Tencent’s WeChat messaging service, a spokesperson said. The Wall Street Journal had reported earlier that Zhang had been detained for allegedly sharing personal data collected by WeChat with Sun Lijun (孫力軍), a former vice public security minister being investigated by Beijing.
Zhang, who had been identified as a vice president in a November 2018 statement by a local municipal government, has never held a senior position and is not a vice president, the Tencent spokesperson said.
Investigators are looking into what type of data Zhang may have shared with Sun and what the government official may have done with the information, the Journal said.
Tencent said earlier this month it fired more than 100 employees on suspicion of graft over a series of probes over the past year and reported more than 40 workers to police.
The company’s rare revelation underscores Beijing’s increasingly tough stance on corruption among government cadres and corporate executives.
China is also tightening scrutiny over its most powerful tech corporations including Tencent and arch-rival Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴), seeking to rein in their growing power in a plethora of sectors from finance to e-commerce and the sharing economy.
Pony Ma (馬化騰), the company’s chairman and co-founder, is not under probe, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. He has been free to leave China and traveled to Singapore last year, the person said, asking not to be identified discussing a private matter.
Shares of Tencent, Asia’s most valuable company, fell as much as 1.6 percent before paring losses in Hong Kong trading.
“It definitely will trigger some profit taking for the stock given it has surged significantly this year,” CMB International Securities Ltd (招銀國際證券) strategist Daniel So (蘇沛豐) said. “Although the case involves corruption which is a sensitive topic, it seems that the impact will not be as deep as Alibaba at this moment as it is linked to an individual rather than the Internet business. Investors will still embrace the stock.”
Meanwhile, Alibaba founder Jack Ma (馬雲) was seen teeing off in recent weeks at the Sun Valley Golf Resort, a secluded 27-hole course on the Chinese island of Hainan, according to people familiar with the matter.
It is the first known Ma sighting since the former English teacher joined a live-streamed video chat with rural educators on Jan. 20. While that appearance helped quiet talk of Ma’s detention, speculation about his standing with the Chinese Communist Party has continued to swirl as authorities clamp down on his sprawling business empire.
Ma’s golf outing adds to recent evidence that the outspoken entrepreneur has — for now at least — avoided nightmare scenarios like jail time or a government seizure of his assets.
Another positive clue emerged this week from Softbank Group Corp founder Masayoshi Son, a longtime friend of Ma’s who was among the earliest investors in Alibaba. Son said during Softbank’s quarterly earnings presentation on Monday that he has remained in touch with Ma. While he did not talk about the Chinese billionaire’s whereabouts, Son said Ma likes to draw and has been sharing his sketches via chat.
Alibaba shares rose as much as 1.5 percent in New York on Wednesday, closing at a more than 10-week high.
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