Taiwan People's Party lawmaker Kao Hung-An is calling on the government to prevent technology transfer to China. That’s in light of the recent case of tech company Hestia Power, in which many of its top personnel moved to China.
Hestia Power specializes in making silicon carbide semiconductors (SiC) which is a key element in electric vehicles. The Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) had highlighted it as a future star company and even invested in it. But the company closed down in February and its CEO and many of its employees moved to China.
At a press conference on Monday, lawmaker Hung said that it was very suspicious that Hestia Power CEO Lee Chwan-Yin moved to China to become a company chairman and that he started a new company, as an overseas Taiwanese, at the same address of Hestia Power in Hsinchu. She said the government should look into this and perhaps imitate the US which lists key technologies that the nation protects.
ITRI official Wang Peng-yu said there was no need for concern as silicon carbide semiconductor (SiC) technology is not new. But he said that ITRI would investigate if China was using this technology before Hestia Power shut down. He said they would also investigate employees to see if they committed a breach of trust by working for two companies at the same time.