An executive at Tencent Holdings Ltd., China’s most valuable publicly traded company, has been detained by Chinese authorities as part of an investigation into a high-profile corruption case involving one of the country’s former top law enforcement officials, people familiar with the case said .
Zhang Feng has been under investigation by the Chinese antigraft inspector since early last year for allegedly unauthorized sharing of personal data collected by Tencent’s social media app WeChat, the people said. They said Mr. Zhang was suspected of transferring WeChat data to former Deputy Public Security Minister Sun Lijun, who is under investigation by Beijing for undisclosed violations of Communist Party rules.
Investigators are looking at what kind of data Mr. Zhang has reportedly shared with Mr. Sun and what Mr. Sun might have done with it, the people said.
Hong Kong-listed Tencent, with a market capitalization of approximately $ 900 billion, confirmed on Thursday that an investigation into Mr. Zhang. The case “relates to allegations of personal corruption and does not involve WeChat or Weixin,” a spokesman said in a statement to The Wall Street Journal. Weixin is WeChat’s sister app for the Chinese market.
Mr. Zhang was named a vice president of Tencent in a statement by the municipal government of Zhangjiakou, a city near Beijing, describing him meeting with the city’s mayor in October 2018.