Received 460 billion won in support from Chengdu, China, and formed a TF team
for retirees from Samsung and Hynix. 200 talent leaked through specialized acts of recruitment, such as doubling the annual salary and supporting children’s relocation
expenses. Perhaps the core brokers received more than 10 billion won per person.”
An anonymous official familiar with the situation in China confessed the serious industrial espionage situation, saying, “Since China began its semiconductor boom seven or eight years ago, it has been frantic to scout Korea’s key semiconductor manpower.”
He explained that China-related institutions and companies offered 2 to 6 times the annual salary through a Korean broker who was recruited, and took 10 to 20 deputy and general managers retired from Samsung Electronics and Hynix into teams and took them to China as a group, he explained. .
It is known that during the Moon Jae-in administration, even when dozens to hundreds of Chinese government or business officials visited Korea and recruited them, Korean authorities were lukewarm in tracking down the case.
Companies reported that Chinese industrial spies took advantage of this atmosphere by going around Korea, Hong Kong, and Southeast Asia to interview domestic industrial manpower to be scouted.
It is said that this happened while the Chinese leadership was trying to build semiconductor factories competitively in each province.
Mr. Choi (65), who was arrested on the 12th스포츠토토 by the Suwon District Prosecutor’s Office’s Defense Business and Industrial Technology Crime Investigation Department (Chief Prosecutor Park Jin-seong) is just such an example.
According to the prosecution, after establishing a semiconductor manufacturer company B in Singapore in July 2015, he received an investment agreement of about 8 trillion won from Taiwanese company C in 2018, and attracted a large-scale investment of 460 billion won from Chengdu City, China in 2020.
Based on such enormous capital, Mr. Choi recruited about 200 core personnel from leading domestic semiconductor companies such as Samsung Electronics to Company B. It is known that they offered them an annual salary that was at least twice that of the previous one, and promised a high level of welfare, such as subsidizing their children’s international school expenses if their families moved to China.
Prosecutors believe that Choi, who received financial support from China, tried to mobilize key semiconductor personnel to establish a replica factory just 1.5km from Samsung Electronics’ Xi’an factory. Upon receiving such an order, Mr. D, a team leader from Samsung Electronics and former Samsung Electronics, illegally possessed ‘Semiconductor Factory BED ( Basic Engineering Data, technology for creating an optimal environment free from impurities)’ data when he left Samsung Electronics in 2012. It was investigated that company B provided it for use.
It was confirmed that the semiconductor factory design drawings were leaked by Mr. E, an employee of a supervision company, a partner of Samsung Electronics’ Xi’an semiconductor plant, and Mr. A used them. BED and process layout diagrams illegally leaked, acquired illegally, and illegally used by Mr. Choi and others are ’30It corresponds to ‘process-related technologies for semiconductors that manufacture sub-nano level DRAM and NAND flash’.
Fortunately, it is understood that the Samsung Electronics semiconductor replica factory that Mr. A and others attempted was not established in China, but it was confirmed that core technologies such as design drawings were leaked abroad.
Prosecutors believe that the trade secrets obtained by Samsung Electronics through trial and error and R&D for more than 30 years will be worth trillions of won, at least in China.
China stealing Korean technology is a reality that is happening openly across all industries.
In particular, in the case of batteries, there are many cases where offers of at least 10 times more than the money received in Korea are received, and CATL in China and Northvolt in Europe are trying to recruit Korean talent, such as including Korean as a preference in some job postings.
It is widely believed that China beat Korea to become the world’s No. 1 LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) video display because of ‘stealing technology’.
Professor Lee Kyu-ho of Chung-Ang University Law School said, “We need to strengthen the expertise of investigations and trials for infringement of technology and trade secrets, and prevent secondary damage from leaking trade secrets in the course of criminal proceedings.”