Chairman of China’s ‘little giant’ in chip materials returns after 8-month absence amid anti-corruption campaign

The chairman of a Chinese semiconductor materials company has resumed work after being taken away by the country’s disciplinary watchdog eight months ago, marking one of the most dramatic turn of events amid Beijing’s anti-corruption campaign in the chip industry.

Shanghai-listed Darbond Technology said in a corporate filing over the weekend that Xie Haihua, 56, has resumed his duties, ending a months-long absence that began in November, when his wife told the company that Xie had been taken away to assist Chinese authorities in an unspecified probe.

The company said at the time that it immediately appointed an acting chairman and that its business operations were normal.

While Darbond said it had no details about the investigation because it had not received any document from any authority regarding the case, Xie’s disappearance took place amid Beijing’s sweeping anti-corruption campaign in the semiconductor industry.

Yang Zhengfan, a Big Fund executive who served on the board of Darbond from 2016 to August 2022, was among a long list of business leaders at the fund who have come under investigation over “serious disciplinary and legal violations” – a term that usually connotes corruption – according to a notice published last summer by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the Chinese Communist Party’s top anti-corruption body.

That probe sent shock waves across the Chinese semiconductor industry, as the Big Fund became subject to accusations of focusing too much on turning quick profits rather than making strategic investments that address the country’s technological bottlenecks.