Taiwan Cracks Down on TSMC Tech Leak... Industrial Spy Sentenced to 10 Years

by Oh Suyon

Published 27 Apr.2026 16:07(KST)

An industrial spy who leaked confidential information from TSMC, the world’s largest foundry company, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison.

According to Bloomberg and the United Daily News of Taiwan on the 27th, Judge Zhang Minghuang of the Taiwan Intellectual Property and Commercial Court sentenced Chen Liming, a former engineer at Tokyo Electron, to 10 years in prison on charges of violating the National Security Act for "overseas use of national core and key technology trade secrets."

TSMC factory located in Hsinchu, Taiwan. Photo by Reuters and Yonhap News Agency

This is a lighter sentence than the 14-year prison term sought by prosecutors. According to United Daily News, the court considered that Chen committed the crime for personal work achievements, and that TSMC submitted a statement clarifying that Tokyo Electron is a supplier of semiconductor manufacturing equipment, not a competitor. The court also took into account that the trade secrets collected by Chen were not leaked to any third party other than Tokyo Electron, and that TSMC expressed its intention to show leniency.

According to the judgment, Chen, who previously worked at TSMC before moving to Tokyo Electron, stole information between August 2023 and June 2025 by opening and photographing confidential files on work laptops of current engineers, or receiving such photographs, at various locations including the TSMC Hsinchu plant conference room, a bar in downtown Hsinchu, the homes of accomplices, and the TSMC Tainan plant.

Four other individuals indicted in connection with this case were sentenced to up to six years in prison.

The court imposed a fine of 150 million New Taiwan dollars (about 7,018,500,000 won) on Tokyo Electron’s Taiwan subsidiary and ordered it to pay 100 million New Taiwan dollars to TSMC.

Bloomberg noted that the heavy sentence handed down to Chen reflects the Taiwanese government’s efforts to protect its semiconductor industry and shows that the country is becoming increasingly vigilant against industrial espionage targeting strategic industries.

Recently, Taiwan has been strengthening its vigilance against intellectual property theft. Early last year, an investigation was launched into whether SMIC, China’s largest semiconductor company, had illegally recruited engineers to obtain Taiwan’s advanced semiconductor technology. Authorities also raided the home of a former TSMC executive who had moved to Intel, due to concerns about potential intellectual property leaks.