TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Chinese state-invested companies have set up illegal offices in Taiwan to steal business secrets and poach local technology talent, the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau (MJIB) said Tuesday (Sept. 3).

Between Aug. 19 and Aug. 30, investigators raided offices linked to eight Chinese corporations suspected of illegal practices, per CNA. The district prosecutors’ offices in Taipei, Shilin, New Taipei, and Hsinchu mobilized 135 agents to visit 30 sites and conduct 65 interrogations.

The action uncovered companies that had received funds from Chinese state-run organizations and then moved them into Taiwan to conduct semiconductor research and recruit engineering talent. Because the research involved key high-tech areas including 5G, satellite communications, and green energy, the poaching of Taiwanese engineers would damage local industry, according to the MJIB.

One of the companies, controlled by state-owned China National Nuclear Corporation, had set up an affiliate in Taiwan which recruited almost a hundred research and development specialists in the hope of acquiring useful information, the investigators said. Several of the Chinese companies had used Chinese or overseas funding which they disguised as Taiwanese funds to evade closer scrutiny.