Former Samsung executive accused of stealing secrets for ‘copy-cat’ China chip factory

A former executive at South Korea’s Samsung Electronics was indicted on Monday on suspicion of stealing company technology for a copy-cat chip factory in China and jeopardising national economic security, prosecutors said.

South Korea is a chipmaking powerhouse, increasingly pressed by the geopolitical and economic rivalry between the United States and China. Last week, President Yoon Suk Yeol described chip industry competition as “all-out war”.

The defendant, who also formerly worked at SK Hynix as a vice president, is accused of illegally acquiring Samsung data to build a rival factory only 1.5 km (1 mile) away from a Samsung chip manufacturing facility in Xian, China, the Suwon District Prosecutors’ Office said in a statement.