Taiwan is beefing up efforts to protect what may be the island’s most important resouces: semiconductor executives and engineers that Taipei says are being poached by China.
Earlier this year, Taiwan’s cabinet proposed strengthening the country’s National Security Act to apply harsher sentences for crimes including “extraterritorial misappropriation of trade secrets” and economic espionage. Under the proposed amendments, the offences could soon carry prison sentences of up to 10 and 12 years, respectively, and fines of between $1m and $3.5m.
The proposals also target Chinese companies that circumvent restrictions on investing and hiring, two common methods of acquiring Taiwanese technology and experience. Taiwanese companies acting as fronts for Chinese firms would face fines of up to $860,000, while Chinese companies operating in Taiwan without authorisation could be fined up to $500,000 and face up to three years in jail.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, better known as TSMC, alone produces more than half the world’s semiconductors, which are critical components of everything from smartphones and medical devices to cars and fighter jets. The industry was recently described by Premier Su Tseng-chang as a “lifeline” for Taiwan that had been infiltrated by China’s “red supply chain”.
“The reason that is so important for Taiwan is that it’s leading to concerns about leakage of some very important intellectual property,” Nick Marro, an analyst for China, Taiwan, and Macau at the Economist Intelligence Unit, told Al Jazeera. “There is a very big fear that if these top engineers are being lured away to China, they will take some trade secrets with them and that could damage the competitiveness of the Taiwanese economy.”
Aljazeera
