In July, the Taiwanese engineer Wei-Jen Lo left his job after 21 years at the world’s leading computer chip maker, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. He soon started work at one of TSMC’s rivals: Intel, the struggling Silicon Valley chip maker that the Trump administration has wagered $8.9 billion to transform into the U.S. national champion.
Intel said that Mr. Lo’s decision to hop from one job to another was routine in a competitive industry. But in Taiwan, government prosecutors saw it as a potential threat to national security and started an investigation. Late last month, officials raided Mr. Lo’s homes in Taipei and Hsinchu, the heart of Taiwan’s chip industry, where they took computers and flash drives. A court also approved the seizure of Mr. Lo’s stocks and real estate.The case is part of a new push by Taiwanese prosecutors to protect the trade secrets of the island’s world-beating chip makers. Taiwan is the source of most of the world’s advanced computer chips, which are essential to virtually everything from iPhones to cars. But as countries try to boost their domestic chip makers, the authorities in Taiwan are taking a stronger hand in protecting its prized technology.For the first time, the government is invoking a 2022 law that made chip makers’ trade secrets subject to protection on national security grounds.On Dec. 2, in a separate case, prosecutors indicted the local unit of one of TSMC’s suppliers, the Japanese equipment maker Tokyo Electron, accusing it of failing to stop a former employee from stealing details about TSMC’s most advanced chips. It was the first time that a company was indicted under Taiwan’s National Security Act over stealing chip trade secrets.Semiconductor technologies “are the lifeline of our country’s industry,” prosecutors said, adding that their theft threatens the international competitiveness of Taiwan’s chip companies.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe.