TAIPEI : Taiwan's spy catchers have launched probes into around 100 Chinese companies suspected of illegally poaching semiconductor engineers and other tech talent, a senior official at the island's Investigation Bureau told Reuters.
A global chip shortage and Beijing's avowed goal of achieving self-reliance in advanced chips - more forcefully promoted by Chinese President Xi Jinping after a trade war with the former Trump administration - has only intensified the scramble for engineering talent. Last month the bureau conducted its biggest operation to date - a raid of eight companies aimed at countering what it said was"the Chinese Communist Party's illegal activities of talent-poaching and secret-stealing".It is not illegal per se for Chinese firms to hire Taiwanese engineers.
In mid-March, after nearly a year of surveillance, the bureau summoned the firm's owner for questioning. The owner has since been released on bail, they said, declining to identify the company as charges have yet to be laid. Tongfu Microelectronics, a Chinese state-affiliated company, was accused of having an illegal office whose employees received salaries in U.S. dollars in offshore accounts wired via a Hong Kong-based subsidiary. The defendants were found guilty in January.Lucy Chen, vice president of Taipei-based Isaiah Research, says that last year Chinese chip firms came wooing with salary offers two to three times local levels. Among the most sought-after employees are IC designers, who can work remotely.
Authorities are also working to increase penalties for poaching. Maximum prison sentences are set to be increased to three years from one year and maximum fines from $5,200 to $520,525.
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