Refer China: Tencent Fires Manager for 3。2M Yuan Bonus Leak, Blacklists

Tencent permanently blacklists Weixin Group manager for leaking 3.2M yuan bonus. July 24 bulletin cites data breach; he earned 'Outstanding' twice.

Tags:

Tencent

Weixin Group

Data Breach

Employee Termination

Year-End Bonus

Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings has permanently dismissed and blacklisted a mid-level manager from its core Weixin Group (WXG) over a serious internal information leak. The staff member’s viral multi-million-yuan year-end bonus screenshot sparked widespread public discussion online and violated the company’s strict data confidentiality rules, according to an internal corporate bulletin issued on July 24.

Tencent Fires Manager for 3。2M Yuan Bonus Leak, Blacklists

The disciplined employee, surnamed Ye, served as a project team leader within Tencent’s WXG division, the business unit responsible for developing and operating WeChat, Tencent’s flagship super app with over 1.3 billion users. Tencent’s internal anti-corruption investigation confirmed that Ye deliberately shared highly confidential corporate sensitive data with external parties, causing the internal compensation information to spread widely across public platforms and generate severe negative repercussions both inside and outside the company.

The disciplinary penalty is permanent and conclusive: Ye has been officially terminated and added to Tencent’s group-wide blacklist, banning him from future employment at any Tencent affiliate indefinitely. The company noted that additional disciplinary sanctions based on its management cadre violation regulations will be announced in a separate official notice later.

The entire controversy originated from a viral compensation screenshot that swept Chinese social media recently. The leaked document detailed Ye’s full year-end incentive package, consisting of cash bonuses and stock equity rewards, with a total value of nearly 3.2 million yuan (approximately US$440,000). The breakdown includes over 820,000 yuan in cash bonuses and more than 2.35 million yuan in stock incentives.

Netizens quickly spotted exclusive internal watermarks embedded in the screenshot, confirming its authenticity and triggering fierce debate over internal salary leakage. As public sentiment intensified, industry insiders noticed that all of Ye’s internal meeting schedules were abruptly erased from the company system, signaling that the suspected salary leak had already activated Tencent’s internal compliance early warning mechanism.

Records show Ye was a high-performing elite employee within the company. He twice obtained Tencent’s highest performance rating — “Outstanding” — throughout 2025, laying the foundation for his lucrative year-end compensation.

Tencent adopts a three-tier employee performance evaluation system: Outstanding, Good, and Underperform. The top-tier “Outstanding” grade, equivalent to the former 4-star and 5-star ratings, is strictly capped at the top 10% to 20% of performers within each team. Employees who secure this elite rating are typically awarded year-end bonuses equivalent to no less than six months of their base salary.

The company emphasized that Ye’s conduct violated Article 3 of Tencent’s “High-Voltage Line” regulations, which explicitly prohibit salary inquiry and disclosure as serious information security breaches. Salary, bonus and equity incentive structures are classified as core confidential business data, and any external leakage constitutes a zero-tolerance violation.

Southern Metropolis Daily reached out to Tencent for official verification regarding the incident, yet the company had not issued any public response as of press time.