The South Korean police have detained two former executives of Samsung on suspicion of illegally transferring commercial secrets worth $3.2 billion to China. One of those arrested, 66-year-old Mr. Choi, established a joint venture for chip manufacturing in China and served as its CEO. He was assisted by a factory designer, Mr. Oh, who was also attempting to recruit other South Korean specialists.
Choi is suspected of leaking Samsung's memory technology for producing DRAM chips using a 20-nanometer process at the Chengdu Gaozhen factory in China. Samsung is one of the leading memory producers, collaborating with numerous companies. The police stated that Choi's actions "weakened the country's competitiveness in the midst of a global chip war." Authorities claim that the arrests will disrupt operations at the Chinese facility, yet the investigation is ongoing.
This is not the first instance of South Korean tech company employees being arrested for stealing trade secrets. In May of last year, a former employee of SK hynix was arrested for printing 3,000 pages of semiconductor manufacturing data. She was suspected of passing these documents to Huawei, though she denied all allegations. Earlier this year, a former Samsung engineer was sentenced to 6 years in prison for leaking sensitive OLED technology to China. Taiwan has repeatedly accused China of intellectual property theft and poaching engineers.
China is striving to develop its own semiconductor manufacturing technologies, as it is nearly 99% reliant on Western tools. U.S. sanctions have significantly impacted China's technological ambitions.
China seeks to advance its own chip industry, having access to many rare earth minerals. While the U.S. and its allies engage in a chip war with China, Chinese officials may secretly support actions involving the theft of intellectual property from other companies and nations.
Source: tomshardware
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