Tencent is suing Yuehua & Maverick over withdrawing from Rocket Girls, get support from SNH48 staff

Following Yuehua Entertainment announcing that they were withdrawing Meiqi and Xuanyi of WJSN from ‘Produce 101 China‘ group Rocket Girls (and Maverick Entertainment withdrawing Zining as well), Tencent stated that this was a violation of their contract.

Well now Tencent is backing up that claim with legal action.

[UPDATE] 180815 Tencent latest statement Tencent has filed a lawsuit against Yuehua and Maverick Entertainment for breaking the contract terms even after Tencent previously reached out and tried to provide more favorable solutions. pic.twitter.com/rxkw3gSmxX — Rocket Girls 101 (@rocketgirls101) August 15, 2018

While that’s not surprising considering their claims, what was surprising is that Tencent got support from a third party. SNH48 senior staff said that they did not send their member onto the program specifically because the contract language was that they would exclusively belong to the show’s group.

[TRANS] SNH48 senior staff revealed that Tencent’s contract for Rocket Girls was very comprehensive including exclusive rights to the artists. All the companies involved have reviewed it. It’s why SNH48 did not send any current members and only ex-members joined Produce 101 China pic.twitter.com/V9URyfImvF — Rocket Girls 101 (@rocketgirls101) August 14, 2018

Short summary: Yuehua and Mavericks Entertainment signed a contract with exclusive artist management rights given to Tencent when they joined Produce 101 China. Source: https://t.co/p8fHeiRakk — Fried Noodles 101 (@rocketgirls101) August 14, 2018

*correction: SNH48 did not join Produce 101 China at all. The ones who joined (Liu Nian, Mao Weijia) are under AKB48 China Team SH, which is a separate entity. — Fried Noodles 101 (@rocketgirls101) August 14, 2018

That throws this situation for a loop. While it seemed like we didn’t have much information to decide who was in the wrong or right when it came to this situation (mainly just felt bad for Meiqi/Xuanyi), obviously if what the SNH48 staff is saying is true, that makes me wonder what exactly Yuehua and Maverick are doing.