An engineer holds a chip while posing for a photo, he is in the middle of testing reactions from different materials and shapes that can have on the chip at the Taiwan Semiconductor Research Institute in Hsinchu, Taiwan, on Feb 11, 2022.BEIJING - China on Wednesday denounced Taiwan's efforts to prevent Chinese companies from poaching talent and stealing chip secrets as a provocative "smear", saying this could not prevent interactions between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait.
Chips made by Taiwan are used in everything from fighter jets to mobile phones, and the government has long worried about Chinese efforts to copy that success, including through economic espionage, poaching talent and other methods. "Recently, they have been deliberately trying to smear and intimidate mainland companies in Taiwan, further escalating cross-strait confrontation and provoking trouble," spokesperson Ma Xiaoguang told a regular news briefing.