Staff writer, with CNA
A Taiwanese man was yesterday indicted on charges of operating a Chinese IC design company in Taiwan without government approval. The Taipei District Court charged Kidder Shen (慎基德), 43, the East Asia sales director of Novosense Microelectronics, of contravening the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the indictment read. UNLICENSED
The entrance to the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office is pictured in an undated photograph.
Photo: Chien Li-chung, Taipei Times
Shen joined Novosense Microelectronics in 2021 and rented an office in Taipei to serve as the Chinese firm’s base of operations in Taiwan. Prosecutors said Shen later hired four former employees of Texas Instruments to conduct sales, customer service and related operations in Taiwan for the Chinese company.
Because Novosense Microelectronics had not obtained government approval to establish operations in Taiwan, those activities were illegal under Taiwanese law, prosecutors said. Under Article 40 of the act, Chinese companies and companies invested by Chinese entities in a third area are prohibited from conducting business activities or establishing a branch or office in Taiwan without approval from competent authorities. To evade scrutiny, Novosense Microelectronics did not register Shen and the other employees for standard employee insurance coverage in Taiwan, prosecutors said, adding that the employees were paid in US dollars through Singapore and Hong Kong-based human resources firms. ILLEGAL RECRUITMENTThe case was among 16 cases involving Chinese firms accused of illegally recruiting Taiwanese employees that were made public by the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau in August last year. Other companies implicated in the investigations included Shenzhen Huntkey Chiyuan Science & Technology Co, a major Chinese information technology hardware manufacturer, and Victory Giant Technology (HuiZhou) Co, one of China’s leading printed circuit board manufacturers.