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Taiwan
ChinaPolitics

Taiwan hits back at mainland Chinese firms fishing for its chip makers

  • Beijing’s drive for technological self-sufficiency has led to an exodus of Taiwanese engineers lured away by the promise of a big salary
  • But Taipei also accuses mainland Chinese firms of illegally setting up operations on the island to feed the recruitment drive

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Taipei accuses mainland Chinese firms of illegally setting up operations on the island to feed a recruitment drive. Photo: EPA-EFE
Lawrence Chung
As Beijing steps up its efforts to become self-reliant in manufacturing computer chips, Taiwan is fighting an uphill battle to stop its engineers from being lured to the mainland and stamp out illegal operations within its own territory.
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On March 9, Taiwanese prosecutors raided the offices of two companies alleged to have been funded by mainland China-based Cvitek, a chip design firm suspected of having financial links to Beijing-based Bitmain Technologies, the world’s largest manufacturer of cryptocurrency-mining equipment.

“We suspect that the two companies – WiseCore Technology in New Taipei City and IC Link in Hsinchu – were set up by the Chinese company and that their top executives had in the past three years illegally recruited several hundred local engineers by paying them at least double their original salaries,” said Chang Jui-chuan, a spokeswoman for the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office.

Investigators had questioned 19 people from the two companies and granted bail to four senior executives pending a further hearing, she said.

Under Taiwanese law, mainland Chinese-funded companies are not allowed to invest in hi-tech and related businesses on the island.

Chang did not say which other companies had been targeted, but local news reports said they included MediaTek, MStar Semiconductor and Global Unichip Corp.

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