Authorities this week raided 10 Chinese firms and questioned more than 70 people as part of a crackdown on suspected poaching of talent from Taiwanese semiconductor and high-tech sectors, the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau said yesterday.
From Monday to yesterday, the bureau performed a series of unannounced raids in coordination with prosecutors in Hsinchu, New Taipei City, Taipei and Taoyuan, it said in a statement.
“The illegal poaching of Taiwan’s high-tech talent by Chinese companies has badly impacted our international competitiveness and endangered our national security,” the bureau said in a statement.
Taipei prosecutors earlier announced that they on Tuesday raided the local unit of GigaDevice Semiconductor (HK) Ltd (香港商香港商芯技佳易微電子) on suspicion of illegal recruitment.
On March 9, the bureau began investigating talent poaching, finding legal contraventions by 11 firms, it said.
“The Chinese firms have been found to have circumvented our nation’s laws and restrictions, by concealing their actual ownership and financial sources, by individuals registering as locations as personal offices and by Chinese firms registering in Taiwan as an investment through a third country,” it said.
That investigation led the bureau to start the most recent probe and resulting raids, involving more than 100 bureau personnel intent on determining the full extent of Chinese recruitment operations in Taiwan, it said.
Working with the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office, the bureau raided four offices in and around Taipei, serving summonses to owners and executives of the Chinese-backed firms, including XEPIC Corp (芯華章科技), the parent of which is based in Nanjing, China, and is focused on electronic design automation software.
The others were Lianchuang Innovation Co (聯創創新), a Shenzhen company specializing in Internet of Things products, and the local unit of GigaDevice Semiconductor (Beijing) Inc (北京兆易創新科技), it said, adding that it was questioning GigaDevice’s Taiwan director Wang Wen-hao (汪文浩).
In New Taipei City, investigators searched Joulwatt Semiconductor Co (杰華特微電子), which specializes in LED driver and linear ICs, with a parent company in Zhejiang Province, and optic display firm Zhongke Guanteng Technology Co (中科冠?) based in Henan Province.
The Taoyuan District Prosecutors’ Office coordinated on searches at Henan Hozel Electronic Co (皓澤電子), a subsidiary of a Henan Province company making micro-motor drive boards, and Sunny Optic Technology (舜宇公司), registered as a Hong Kong company, but based in Zhejiang.
The Hsinchu District Prosecutors’ Office aided the bureau in raids at Heroman Biotechnology Co (芯盈電子科技), an IC chip design firm based in China, but registered as a Taiwanese capital-backed business.
In Hsinchu, they also searched Allystar Technology Ltd (華大北斗公司), which is a Shenzhen company, and Jia-Ji RF-Pro Technology Co (佳佶科技), a subsidiary of a Zhejiang company.
Additional reporting by Reuters
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