Three engineers in China secrets case put on US wanted list
- Ex-president of Chinese chip maker Fujian Jinhua and two other engineers are accused of stealing technology from Micron Technology
- Issue of arrest warrants marks acceleration of first case filed under Trump administration’s ‘China Initiative’
The has US won arrest warrants for the former president of a China state-owned chip maker and two other engineers charged with stealing secrets from Idaho-based Micron Technology.
The effort to apprehend the three men is notable because they were charged in 2018 in the first case filed under the Trump administration’s “China Initiative”, targeting trade-secret theft, hacking and economic espionage.
A federal magistrate judge in San Francisco issued the warrants on Wednesday after the three men failed to show for their arraignments.
While the prosecution of Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuit has hobbled China’s aspirations of mass-producing memory chips, the case has crawled along, even as the Justice Department said the China Initiative would prioritise rapid action.
The arraignments of the engineers were repeatedly postponed by agreement between the US and their lawyers. Suddenly on Wednesday, in a three-minute hearing, a US prosecutor requested the warrants, telling the judge she knew the defendants would not show up after talking to their lawyers on Monday.