Is Technology Solely Reliant on Theft? China is Aggressively Poaching Global Semiconductor Talent!

Is technology solely reliant on theft? China is aggressively poaching global semiconductor talent! (Video)

[People News] Hello, dear viewers, and welcome to "Forbidden News Decoded." I am Sun Ning.

Six hundred processes. In the realm of modern microchips, this represents the journey from a grain of sand to the pinnacle of human technology. This is also the technological moat that South Korea's tech giant Samsung Electronics has painstakingly built over decades, investing hundreds of trillions of Korean won and requiring countless scientists to work tirelessly. However, dismantling this moat does not necessitate a massive army or missile strikes; it merely requires a few encrypted USB drives and a soul consumed by greed.

In recent years, a "great technology theft" has been sweeping through the global semiconductor industry. From Seoul to Hsinchu, from Silicon Valley to Amsterdam, numerous cutting-edge technologies, considered state secrets, are being funneled through covert underground channels to a single destination—China. This is not just ordinary business competition; it is an extreme espionage war aimed at rewriting the global technology landscape. In its quest for a so-called "leapfrog" in the chip sector, China is deploying the full force of its national machinery to launch a ruthless campaign of plunder against global tech giants.

Invisible gunpowder.

The story begins with a landmark trial at the Suwon District Court in South Korea. In 2026, this lawsuit, which sent shockwaves through the East Asian semiconductor industry, concluded. The defendant, Quan Mou, was once a source of pride for South Korea's technology sector. He dedicated 28 years to Samsung Electronics, rising to the roles of senior manager and chief engineer, where he played a key role in witnessing Samsung's triumph over its Japanese and American rivals, ultimately establishing itself as the global leader in memory chips. He possessed the complete process specifications for Samsung's most critical technology—the 18-nanometer DRAM /dræm/ memory chip. In the semiconductor realm, this represents a crucial dividing line between success and failure, and behind this line lies a 'trial-and-error hell' that Samsung Electronics painstakingly constructed over several years.

To be the first in the world to unlock this technology, Samsung invested over 1.6 trillion Korean won in research and development over more than five years. This staggering sum was not allocated for factory construction but was entirely 'spent' in laboratories and testing production lines. The essence of semiconductor R&D is an extremely costly 'elimination process.' Over these five years, engineers had to discard hundreds of experimental wafers daily to identify a minuscule current leakage issue, with each wafer costing thousands of dollars. Samsung's engineers built this technological moat on a 'graveyard of failures' made up of millions of dollars, through countless sleepless nights filled with hard work and sacrifice.

However, this 'industrial alchemy,' which encapsulated five years of Samsung's hard work and cost 1.6 trillion Korean won, quickly faltered in the face of the exorbitant offers made by Chinese companies. In 2016, Changxin Storage was founded in Hefei. This company, embodying China's ambition for domestic memory production, had a clear directive from its inception: 'Do not waste time on independent research and development; simply replicate Samsung's model.' They successfully recruited Quan Mou through overseas headhunters, offering him an irresistible annual salary, offshore equity, and unparalleled research and development authority.

After his job switch, Quan Mou meticulously entered the complete parameters of over 600 core process steps from Samsung's 18-nanometer DRAM process into Changxin Storage's database, including critical equipment temperatures, gas flow, and pressure values for cleaning, film formation, exposure, and etching. Furthermore, Quan Mou acted as an 'insider headhunter,' persuading several key subordinates still working on Samsung's production line. Using encrypted communication software, he continuously smuggled out Samsung's 'abnormal handling list' that was generated during yield declines on the production line.

Armed with these stolen 'secret manuals,' Changxin Storage was able to bypass the most challenging 'trial and error adjustment period' of wafer fabrication, allowing China's DRAM technology to close the gap with international giants by a full decade overnight. Quan Mou's betrayal facilitated Changxin Storage's achievement of the most cost-effective and aggressive technological catch-up in the industry's history.

This brazen act of theft ultimately provoked outrage within the South Korean judiciary. In 2026, Quan Mou received a seven-year prison sentence in the first instance for violating the provisions related to 'national core technology' under South Korea's Industrial Technology Protection Act. The judge expressed in the ruling that Quan Mou's actions 'directly undermined the economic foundation of Korea.'

However, once technology is leaked, it is akin to water spilt on the ground. In a bid to mount a decisive counteroffensive, Samsung Electronics is currently working with a leading legal team in the United States to file a Section 337 investigation lawsuit with the U.S. International Trade Commission. Samsung plans to impose the strictest legal penalties: if Changxin Storage attempts to sell chips produced using these 600 illegal technologies in the U.S., it will seek a comprehensive ban from the U.S. government, effectively shutting them down legally.

Furthermore, Quan Mou's case is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to China's theft of Samsung's trade secrets. In a similar vein, another former Samsung researcher was sentenced to six years in prison for allegedly leaking OLED display panel manufacturing technology valued at 340 billion Korean won to Chinese companies in recent years.

The Shared Nightmare of Global Giants

If you believe that China's ambitions are limited to Samsung, you are sorely mistaken. In this grand scheme of global technological plunder, any multinational corporation that holds core technology is viewed as a prime target by China. The crown jewel of semiconductor equipment—ASML from the Netherlands—has also been significantly affected.

As the only company in the world capable of manufacturing the most advanced EUV lithography machines, ASML's technology plays a crucial role in determining the limits of chip manufacturing processes. To overcome the equipment blockade imposed by the United States, Chinese companies are leaving no stone unturned. In 2023, a major scandal erupted within ASML: a former employee of Chinese nationality illegally downloaded the core database containing the company's confidential process and equipment software by exploiting system privileges.

This database holds the 'original code of the lithography control software' and 'optical correction parameters,' which are even more critical than blueprints. Without this software, a lithography machine made up of tens of thousands of precision parts would be rendered useless. Following this incident, the authoritative Dutch media outlet NRC launched an in-depth investigative report, uncovering the final fate of the spy—shortly after his theft, he received a job offer from Chinese tech giant Huawei through clandestine channels and swiftly left the country to return to China. The actions of this employee directly addressed the core code deficiency that Huawei faced in developing domestically produced lithography machine software. Earlier, a group of former employees of ASML's American subsidiary, also of Chinese nationality, collectively resigned to establish XTAL, transferring a significant amount of ASML's lithography software source code and patents. Ultimately, a U.S. court ruled that XTAL must pay ASML $223 million in damages for 'theft of trade secrets.'

China's influence extends beyond semiconductor equipment into areas like autonomous driving. Apple's 'Titan Project,' a self-driving car initiative that has cost hundreds of billions of dollars and has been in development for years, faced a significant incident involving its core R&D engineer, Zhang Xiaolang. Just before leaving the company in 2018, he exhibited unusual behavior by downloading critical patent circuit board designs for Apple's autonomous vehicle, along with encrypted files for automatic sensing.

Zhang Xiaolang then bought a one-way ticket to Guangzhou, China, intending to join the new Chinese car manufacturer Xiaopeng Motors. However, he was arrested on the spot by the FBI's counterintelligence team just before boarding his flight. After a lengthy legal battle, he pleaded guilty in 2024 when presented with compelling evidence against him and was sentenced to prison.

From ASML to Apple, these multinational cases illustrate a clear narrative: China's espionage strategy is a comprehensive, cross-border precision operation, and they are willing to pay any price to eliminate the 'trial and error time' in research and development.

'Emptying' the National Treasure Mountain

In this global technological competition, Taiwan's TSMC, often referred to as the National Treasure Mountain, remains the fortress that China is most eager to conquer. For China, controlling TSMC means controlling the semiconductor landscape. Over the past two decades, Chinese companies have conducted numerous dramatic 'talent hunts' to breach Taiwan's semiconductor defenses. This poaching effort has transformed remarkably from overt actions to covert operations, shifting from 'grand displays' to 'undercover tactics.'

Let’s rewind the clock ten years to a time when China's talent poaching strategy was characterized as 'arrogant and brutal.' They leveraged unlimited financial subsidies from local governments, waving high salary checks to lure 'godfather-level' figures from Taiwan's semiconductor sector. A prime example is Liang Mengsong, who was referred to as a 'traitor of TSMC' by the Taiwanese media. This R&D enthusiast, frustrated by promotion barriers at TSMC, first defected to Samsung and later joined SMIC as co-CEO. Upon joining SMIC, Liang Mengsong quickly became the company's 'lifesaving hero.' With his deep understanding of TSMC's processes, he rapidly improved SMIC's 28-nanometer yield and successfully advanced to 14-nanometer technology. Remarkably, even without EUV lithography machines, he was able to produce 7-nanometer mobile chips for Huawei using multiple exposure techniques.

Following Liang Mengsong's lead, former TSMC co-CEO Jiang Shangyi and Taiwan DRAM mogul Gao Qichuan also made their way westward. During that time, the strategy of Chinese companies was to 'use Taiwanese to fight Taiwanese,' poaching key individuals to take away an entire generation of industry expertise.

However, this high-profile poaching soon drew a strong response from the Taiwanese government and increased vigilance from the United States. In recent years, Chinese companies have been compelled to shift their strategies from 'above ground' to 'underground', evolving into highly covert methods known as 'ant moving bricks' and 'localization'. China's semiconductor national team and major IC design firms, such as Bitmain (比特大陸) and Changsha Jingjia Micro (長沙景嘉微), have devised a set of tactics that Taiwanese investigators refer to as 'foreign capital skinning techniques' to avoid scrutiny. They no longer require engineers to move to Shanghai or Shenzhen for work, as losing health insurance or having frequent travel records to China would immediately attract the attention of Taiwan's national security agencies. The latest tactic employed by Chinese companies involves establishing shell companies in third-party locations, such as the Cayman Islands or Singapore, and then legally renting upscale offices next to the Hsinchu Science Park under the guise of 'foreign investment' or 'technology consultants'.

These companies advertise on Taiwanese job websites, presenting themselves as 'American startups' or 'Hong Kong contractors'. In reality, they function as underground secret research and development centers dedicated to serving their Chinese parent companies. Recent investigations in Taiwan have uncovered specific cases, such as the Chinese military chip manufacturer Changsha Jingjia Microelectronics, which, in its efforts to develop GPU chips for military and AI applications, has been aggressively poaching research and development teams from MediaTek and Novatek by utilizing former Taiwanese executives as 'white gloves' to facilitate the recruitment process around the Hsinchu Science Park.

Headhunters from Chinese companies are utilizing highly targeted keywords on LinkedIn to identify core engineers. Instead of conducting interviews at their offices, they arrange meetings in private booths at upscale hotels in Hsinchu Science Park, and even resort to using encrypted software with a 'self-destruct' feature for online interviews. Once hired, these companies offer salaries that are three to five times higher than the original pay of Taiwanese engineers. The engineers remain in Taiwan, only needing to report to a secret office adjacent to Hsinchu Science Park each day, while their salaries are funneled through overseas shell accounts or companies based in the Cayman Islands, or even directly paid in virtual currencies like Bitcoin to avoid detection by Taiwan's national security and tax authorities. This form of 'systematic poaching' has resulted in the leakage of numerous business secrets, enabling the silent transfer of chip architectures that Taiwanese firms have invested billions in developing.

The Iron Counterattack of the Chip Shield

In response to this organized 'technological hollowing out,' Taiwan and the global semiconductor community have established a robust countermeasure. In recent years, the Taiwanese government has officially revised the National Security Law, categorizing advanced semiconductor processes as 'core national key technologies.' Now, anyone who steals and transfers commercial secrets related to TSMC's advanced processes, such as 3-nanometer and 2-nanometer technologies, as well as key packaging techniques to China or hostile foreign entities will face a maximum prison sentence of 12 years, with fines potentially reaching 100 million New Taiwan dollars. Additionally, job search websites are legally barred from advertising semiconductor job openings in China, and engineers who have had access to sensitive technologies must undergo rigorous vetting before traveling to China.

For those traitors who choose to sell their souls for fleeting profits, this shortcut paved with money often leads to the complete ruin of their careers. The semiconductor industry's core circle is extremely small; once a name appears in a national security indictment, it signifies a total collapse of their reputation in the global tech industry. In today's intensifying tech war between the U.S. and China, any technical personnel who have aided China in illegal research and development will find themselves directly on the global supply chain's blacklist. They will forever be barred from entering any technological empire that shapes the future of humanity, such as Nvidia, Apple, and ASML. When technology is exploited by Chinese companies, and the iron hammer of the law falls, they will ultimately become the cheapest pawns in the great power struggle.

Chips are the cornerstone of modern civilization and the shield that protects the free world. This shield must not bear any cracks of betrayal. While China may spark a few fleeting successes through systematic theft and underground poaching, without the foundations of the rule of law, integrity, and free innovation, the castles in the air built through plunder will ultimately fail to support a genuine technological empire. The chip war, which will determine the geopolitical fate of humanity for decades to come, has already established its defensive lines, and history will ultimately judge every traitor.

That concludes today's content. If you enjoyed our program, please give us a thumbs up, subscribe, and turn on the notification bell. If you have thoughts on China's poaching of Taiwanese and Korean talent, feel free to leave a comment in the section below. We’ll see you in the next episode!

(“Forbidden News Decoded”)
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