Authorities on Tuesday raided the offices of the local unit of GigaDevice Semiconductor (Beijing) Inc (北京兆易創新科技) on suspicion of illegally recruiting Taiwanese technology talent to infiltrate Taiwan’s semiconductor industry.
Nine people, including Wang Wen-hao (汪文浩), a Taiwanese who heads GigaDevice Taiwan’s office in Taipei, along with the company’s chief accountant, surnamed Liu (劉), and other employees, were summoned for questioning, Taipei prosecutors said.
Wang was released on bail of NT$100,000 late on Tuesday night.
Photo: Chien Li-chung, Taipei Times
It is the first major investigation into talent poaching by suspected Chinese-funded businesses following the legislature’s passage on Friday of amendments to the National Security Act (國家安全法) which impose stiffer punishments on the illicit transfer or theft of core technologies.
According to business registry records, Wang in 2013 set up the Taiwan office as the local unit of GigaDevice Semiconductor (HK) Ltd (香港商香港商芯技佳易微電子), saying it would create jobs by conducting research and development into semiconductors and flash memory devices.
However, a preliminary investigation indicated that it was a ruse — that the Taiwan office is a shell entity for Wang and his deputies to penetrate Taiwan’s high-tech sector, aiming to poach Taiwanese talent in the IC design and memory device sectors, and to obtain proprietary technology.
The Taiwan office was set up to represent the Hong Kong firm, but both companies are controlled by GigaDevice Semiconductor (Beijing) Inc, contravening Taiwanese laws banning Chinese investment in Taiwan’s high-tech sector, court filings showed.
Chinese scientist and entrepreneur Zhu Yiming (朱一明) is the founder and owner of GigaDevice Semiconductor (Beijing), and he has total control and provides all the funding for the Hong Kong and Taiwan offices, the investigation showed.
Zhu reportedly has good connections to the Beijing government and close ties with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
He is Anhui Province’s representative to China’s National People’s Congress, and had studied and worked in the US under the Thousand Talent Plan jointly run by the CCP and China’s State Council, prosecutors said.
Since 2013, Wang has recruited more than 20 Taiwanese professionals, enticing them to work in China by offering them high annual salaries of NT$3 million (US$101,502) plus bonuses, prosecutors said.
One of them is an engineer surnamed Hsiao (蕭) who had worked on semiconductors at the Hsinchu Science Park, they said.
Prosecutors said that investigations of other cases have uncovered similar cases of Chinese firms skirting Taiwan’s restrictions by creating entities in Hong Kong which they use to set up business operations in Taiwan in light of Taiwan’s laxer measures governing Hong Kong firms.
However, the Hong Kong firms were later found to be directly owned and funded by Chinese entities, prosecutors said.
Employees at the Taiwan office who were questioned on Tuesday have been listed as persons of interest, prosecutors said, adding that they were summoned to provide information on the company’s operations, including money flow from China, who paid their salaries, and the people or channels through which high-tech materials and technologies are passed or processed.
Wang and his deputies are likely to face charges of contravening 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), whose articles relating to national security had also been amended and passed by the legislature on Friday, prosecutors said.
UPGRADE: The Kang Ding-class frigate is replacing its Chaparall missiles with Tien Chien II and Hua Yang VLS, which would provide it with long-range, 360° air defense Taiwan plans to produce 1,200 to 1,376 Hai Chien II missiles (海劍二, Sea Sword II) — also known as TC-2N — to serve as the standard air defense system of the navy’s surface combatant fleet, a source said yesterday. Last week, the Hai Chien II, the naval version of the Tien Kung II missile (天劍二, Sky Sword II), completed a live-fire test in waters off the National Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology’s Jiupeng facility (九鵬) in Pingtung County’s Manjhou Township (滿州). The MIM72 Chaparral and other dated air defense missiles that currently arm Taiwanese ships have inadequate range to combat Chinese
REASONS FOR TRAVEL: An assistant professor said that proposed amendments to penalize drivers if they used drugs overseas would not deter people from traveling People who operate a motor vehicle under the influence of marijuana would have their driver’s license revoked, even if they used the substance while overseas, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday, citing proposed amendments to the Road Traffic Management and Penalty Act (道路交通管理處罰條例). The amendments would also authorize the government to revoke the licenses of people determined to have used Category 1 or Category 2 narcotics, even if they were not operating a vehicle while under the influence of drugs, as well as ban them from taking the license test for three years, the ministry said. People aged 18 or
Shih Hsin University President Chen Ching-he (陳清河) yesterday issued a public apology for comments made in his commencement speech last week, stating that he has asked the school to suspend his duties and halt his wages for two months as a show of contrition. At the commencement ceremony on May 30, Chen said, “If you don’t manage your time well, or your own emotions, or your health, then I am telling every one of you — put a quick end to ‘you,’ because the world has no need for ‘you.’” The comments have sparked significant controversy online, and Chen through an open
Johanne Liou (劉喬安), a Taiwanese woman who shot to unwanted fame during the Sunflower movement protests in 2014, returned to Taiwan last night after being deported from the US. She is to stand trial in Taiwan for charges involving embezzlement, fraud and drug crimes. The Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said it took her into custody at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and would first question her before transferring her to the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office. She was arrested upon disembarking a flight from San Francisco that landed shortly before 7pm. Liou absconded to the US in 2019 after jumping bail
RSS