Taipei prosecutor indicts man for operating illegal Chinese chip firm office

Prosecutors in Taipei have filed an indictment against Lin Hao-yuan for allegedly managing an unregistered office of the Chinese semiconductor company Lontium Semiconductor Corp. The charge stems from a breach of the Act Governing Relations between the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area, which requires mainland firms to obtain prior approval before conducting business in Taiwan. Lontium initially established a Taipei office in the Neihu District in 2012, but the board decided to shut it down in January 2015, a closure later approved by the Ministry of Economic Affairs.

Despite the closure, the company's chairman, Chen Feng, instructed Lin in July 2024 to lease space in the Zhongshan District to serve as a new operating base, where the firm reportedly recruited high-tech engineers for chip research and testing without authorization. In addition to Lin's indictment, authorities have released a wanted notice for Chen Feng. Lontium is one of sixteen Chinese technology companies that were probed by the Ministry of Justice's Investigation Bureau in August of the previous year for setting up unauthorized offices and hiring local staff.