The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it plans to increase penalties for poaching talent for Chinese firms, after four suspects implicated in a high-profile case were each fined NT$300,000 (US$10,737) and evaded prosecution.
In March, investigators raided two Taiwanese units of Beijing-based Bitmain Technologies Ltd (比特大陸) — New Taipei City-based WiseCore Technology Co Ltd (智鈊科技) and Hsinchu-based IC Link Ltd (芯道互聯) — and detained four suspects over allegations that they had over three years recruited hundreds of engineers for the design of chips used in cryptocurrency mining.
Without sufficient evidence that the suspects had contravened the Trade Secrets Act (營業秘密法), the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office on Monday deferred prosecution and fined them NT$300,000 each under the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例).
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Under Article 40-1 of the cross-strait act, Chinese entities desiring to engage in business activity in Taiwan must first obtain government permission.
The council is seeking to amend Article 93-1 of the same act to increase penalties for contravening the regulation, although details are still being discussed, it said.
Agencies are meeting to discuss appropriate measures to prevent China’s repeated attempts to recruit specialized talent, the council said, adding that specific changes would be shared with the public once they are decided.
Meanwhile, the Hsinchu District Prosecutors’ Office on Monday brought charges against five people in association with establishing a company with obscured Chinese investment to poach talent.
According to the office’s investigation, from September 2016, a man surnamed Ting (丁) and four others accepted more than NT$558.17 million from Shenzhen Gongjin Electronics Co (共進電子) to set up TWin Advanced Technology Corp (同進科技) in Hsinchu County’s Tai Yuen Hi-Tech Industrial Park (台元科技園區).
The defendants disguised the investment as originating from a foreign investor to obtain approval from the Ministry of Economic Affairs, prosecutors said.
The registered contact for TWin is a Japanese national, but its parent company is a subsidiary of Gongjin Electronics, they said.
The company offered high salaries to attract Taiwanese specialists in areas such as broadband access terminals, wireless communications and wearable technologies to conduct research and development for the Chinese firm, which was doing business in Taiwan illegally, they added.
In May, at the request of the office, Ministry of Justice investigators raided three locations and questioned about 20 suspects and witnesses.
Prosecutors charged five suspects over contraventions of Article 40-1 of the cross-strait act.
Any contraventions of cross-strait regulations governing business practices would be dealt with in a strict and swift manner, the Hsinchu office said, urging Taiwanese to avoid criminal activity for the sake of meager profit, as such activity affects the competitiveness of the nation’s high-tech industry.
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