TECH

US accuses two Asian spy companies to chip maker

It is not the first time we hear that Chinese companies or "alleged Chinese spies" seek to steal secrets from large US companies. On Thursday, the US Department of Justice has uncovered charges related to intellectual property theft against a Chinese state-funded company, in which another company from Taiwan is also involved.They are the Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuit Co. and the Taiwanese United Microelectronics (UMC), which have been accused of stealing patented technology from Micron, a maker of DRAM modules, based in Idaho. Three people from Taiwan were also named in the indictment filed last September. According to Bloomberg, the problem has been detected since these manufacturers did not have the technology to create DRAM memory chips before the alleged information theft.Attorney General Jeff Sessions said at a news conference in Washington, according to the same media:''China's economic espionage against the United States has increased rapidly, Attorney General Jeff Sessions told a news conference in Washington. It is time for China to join the community of licit nations. International trade has been good for them, but the deception must end''.The alarms went on in the United States after detecting that China identified the development of DRAM technology as a national economic priority. Chen Zhengkun - also known as Stephen Chen, who was president of a subsidiary of Micron in Taiwan and who resigned in 2015, began working in UMC. While there, he organized an agreement between UMC and Jinhua in which UMC would transfer DRAM technology to Jinhua for mass production, and the technology would be shared between them.Attorney General Jeff Sessions also announced a new initiative aimed at increasing control over China's espionage and piracy efforts. He assures that efforts will be made to identify cases of information theft in a more timely manner.


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