Taiwan: China is said to have illegally poached chip engineers for many years
Authorities in Taiwan investigated suspected front companies from China for over four years. They also targeted TSMC engineers.
(Image: c't)
Chinese companies are alleged to have illegally poached chip designers and semiconductor engineers in Taiwan for years with state support. In December 2020, the Taiwanese Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau (MJIB) launched an investigation that culminated in large-scale searches and interviews in March 2025.
From March 18 to 27, over 180 investigators searched 34 locations of eleven companies in six cities and interviewed 90 individuals. Some companies are said to have posed as Taiwanese: Shenzhen Torey Microelectronics Technology Co, Ltd, for example, opened offices in Tainan and Hsinchu without authorization and under false names, according to the report. The managers are said to have regularly shared research results on chip development with the Chinese parent company.
The largest Chinese chip contract manufacturer, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) is said to have opened a dummy company in Samoa. According to the report, SMIC used this to establish a subsidiary in Taiwan under the guise of foreign investment. Secretly, the company is said to have actively poached talent from Taiwan.
TSMC in the spotlight
Reports that China was aggressively poaching TSMC engineers were already making the rounds in summer 2020. Shortly afterward, investigations by the Taiwanese authorities began.
According to reports at the time, companies were waving lavish salaries, bonuses, and promotion prospects. Former ex-TSMC employees were given high-ranking positions: Shang-Yi Chiang, for example, was Head of Research and later Chief Operating Officer (COO) at TSMC from 1997 to 2019, but then took the top job at Chinese chip contract manufacturer HSMC. HSMC has since gone bankrupt.
In 2022, chip analyses revealed that SMIC's 7-nanometer manufacturing process was probably copied from TSMC's first 7-nm process, N7. The model is obvious, as N7 is TSMC's last process without advanced lithography systems with extreme ultraviolet (EUV) exposure technology. Chinese manufacturers are unable to obtain EUV lithography systems due to trade restrictions.
(mma)