An investigation revealed eight Chinese chip companies allegedly illegally poaching talent and trade secrets in Taiwan, the Hsinchu District Prosecutors’ Office said yesterday, underscoring a heated global rivalry to develop key technology used in cellphones, vehicles and artificial intelligence.
In a joint investigation launched last month by the Hsinchu, Taipei and New Taipei City prosecutors’ offices, 135 officers under the direction of the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau raided 30 locations and questioned 65 people from Aug. 19 to Friday last week, the Hsinchu District Prosecutors’ Office said in a statement.
The Chinese companies allegedly hid their backgrounds and recruited talent from Hsinchu Science Park (新竹科學園區), in an effort to acquire high-end technologies such as semiconductors, it said.
Photo: Tsai Chang-sheng, Taipei Times
The companies were iCommsemi (中國深圳市南方硅谷半導體), Shanghai New Vision Microelectronics Co (上海新相微電子), NJAVC (南京齊芯半導體), Emotibot Technologies Ltd (中國竹間智能科技上海), Tongfang Co (同方), ACTT (成都銳成芯微科技), Naura Technology Group Co (中國北方華創微電子裝備) and Hestia Power Inc (中國上海瀚薪科技), prosecutors said.
Naura, which supplies China’s biggest chipmaker, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (中芯), allegedly illegally recruited engineers who worked on chip-related equipment, they said.
The Beijing-based company said in a statement to Bloomberg News that its office in Taiwan “was set up in accordance with local laws and regulations and there is no poaching.”
Hestia Power allegedly moved capital to Taiwan by setting up shell companies in third countries with funding from a sub-fund of the of the Chinese Ministry of Finance’s China Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund and the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Fund, prosecutors said.
Tongfang — owned by China National Nuclear Corp (中國核工業集團), a Chinese state-run enterprise that oversees military nuclear programs, information technology, and energy and environmental projects — allegedly disguised its source of funding by setting up a Taiwanese company that recruited a research team of nearly 100 people, in an attempt to acquire technology, they said.
ACTT, a supplier of IC patents and product design, allegedly attempted to cover up its illegal business in Taiwan by telling its staff to register their health insurance at trade unions or district offices, they said.
Foreign tourists who purchase a seven-day Taiwan Pass are to get a second one free of charge as part of a government bid to boost tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. A pair of Taiwan Passes is priced at NT$5,000 (US$156.44), an agency staff member said, adding that the passes can be used separately. The pass can be used in many of Taiwan’s major cities and to travel to several tourist resorts. It expires seven days after it is first used. The pass is a three-in-one package covering the high-speed rail system, mass rapid transport (MRT) services and the Taiwan Tourist Shuttle services,
Drinking a lot of water or milk would not help a person who has ingested terbufos, a toxic chemical that has been identified as the likely cause of three deaths, a health expert said yesterday. An 83-year-old woman surnamed Tseng (曾) and two others died this week after eating millet dumplings with snails that Tseng had made. Tseng died on Tuesday and others ate the leftovers when they went to her home to mourn her death that evening. Twelve people became ill after eating the dumplings following Tseng’s death. Their symptoms included vomiting and convulsions. Six were hospitalized, with two of them
DIVA-READY: The city’s deadline for the repairs is one day before pop star Jody Chiang is to perform at the Taipei Dome for the city’s Double Ten National Day celebrations The Taipei City Government has asked Farglory Group (遠雄集團) to repair serious water leaks in the Taipei Dome before Friday next week, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said yesterday, following complaints that many areas at the stadium were leaking during two baseball games over the weekend. The dome on Saturday and Sunday hosted two games in tribute to CTBC Brothers’ star Chou Szu-chi (周思齊) ahead of his retirement from the CPBL. The games each attracted about 40,000 people, filling the stadium to capacity. However, amid heavy rain, many people reported water leaking on some seats, at the entrance and exit areas, and the
BIG collection: The herbarium holds more than 560,000 specimens, from the Japanese colonial period to the present, including the Wulai azalea, which is now extinct in the wild The largest collection of plant specimens in Taiwan, the Taipei Botanical Garden’s herbarium, is celebrating its 100th anniversary with an exhibition that opened on Friday. The herbarium provides critical historical documents for botanists and is the first of its kind in Taiwan, Taiwan Forestry Research Institute director Tseng Yen-hsueh (曾彥學) said. It is housed in a two-story red brick building, which opened during 1924. At the time, it stored 30,000 plant specimens from almost 6,000 species, including Taiwanese plant samples collected by Tomitaro Makino, the “father of Japanese botany,” Tseng said. The herbarium collection has grown in the century since its