AIBRIEF
Since 2020, Taiwan's main investigative agency has opened 166 hidden ownership cases, convicting 36, with 33 tied to chip R&D or design and named targets including Xiaomi, OnePlus, Oppo, and SMIC.
Taiwan's Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau (MJIB) has opened 166 cases since 2020 against tech companies accused of concealing Chinese ownership, securing 36 convictions. Thirty-three of those involved semiconductor research, design, or development.
Fines range from roughly $3,800 to $800,000, and prison terms can run up to three years. Named targets include phone makers Xiaomi, OnePlus, and Oppo, along with Chinese chipmaker SMIC.
The cases run under Taiwan's Cross-Strait Act, which lets Chinese-linked firms operate locally only with government approval. Investigators say violators typically obscure ownership through third-country shell companies or by registering under non-Chinese nominees.
A parallel MJIB track has opened 67 cases against Chinese companies suspected of stealing Taiwanese trade secrets. The bureau has also flagged aggressive recruitment: Chinese firms have reportedly poached Taiwanese engineers at salaries up to 10 times the local norm. "Taiwan's high-tech talent has become a key target for recruitment by Chinese enterprises," the bureau said in a statement cited by TechRadar.
Taiwan produces more than 60% of the world's semiconductors and roughly nine in ten of the most advanced processors, which is why talent and trade-secret leakage is treated as a direct risk to global chip supply.
What remains unclear: how many of the 166 cases are still open, which penalties fell on the named firms, and whether the MJIB has tied the same shell-company networks to multiple cases.