A Taiwanese chipmaker pleaded guilty and was fined $60 million for conspiring to steal trade secrets from a U.S. semiconductor company, the Justice Department said Oct. 28. Taiwan-based United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC) allegedly tried to steal intellectual property from U.S.-based Micron Technology to benefit Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuit, a Chinese state-owned company. The $60 million fine was the “second largest ever” in a U.S. criminal trade secret prosecution, the Justice Department said.

The Congressional Research Service issued a report Oct. 26 on U.S. semiconductor policy and global competition, including an analysis of the semiconductor supply chain, the current industry landscape and semiconductor-related legislation. Congress has introduced multiple bills to provide federal funding and incentives for the semiconductor industry (see 2007240010), but questions remain about how large federal tax benefits should be, how much the federal government should invest in research and development, and how long the funding and incentives should be sustained, the CRS said. The U.S. should also consider how partners and adversaries would respond to moves such as federal investment in R&D-related activities such as workforce training or federal spending to “ensure a domestic production source for some or all national security applications,” and whether the efforts should be made in collaboration with other “like-minded” countries “to incentivize R&D and supply chains and to counter China’s state-led policies.”

China has met 71% of its 2020 purchase goals for U.S. agricultural commodities under the phase one trade deal, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in an “interim report.” The Oct. 23 report, released 11 days before the election, said the U.S. is on track for its “best year ever in sales to China.”

The U.S. should sign a trade deal with Taiwan and increase cooperation on export controls, similar to U.S. partnerships with Japan and Australia, Asia experts at the Center for Strategic and International Studies said. Increased collaboration with Taiwan has strong support from Congress and the Taiwanese government, the experts said, and would make sense as the U.S. welcomes manufacturing and investment from Taiwan.

In a think tank effort that seems to assume a change in Washington, though never explicitly says it, the Peterson Institute for International Economics says there should be a return to more conservative use of export controls and entity lists to manage the threat of Chinese access to advanced technology for nefarious purposes. Martin Chorzempa, a PIIE research fellow, discussed a memo he authored to a future Commerce undersecretary for export controls in the next administration, during an Oct. 22 webinar at PIIE.

Like-minded democracies should establish a global technology alliance to safeguard sensitive technologies and improve export restrictions, technology and trade experts said. The alliance -- which would initially include Australia, Canada, the European Union, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, South Korea, the United Kingdom and the U.S. -- should act to increase export controls on critical technologies and work to counter China’s illegal technology transfers and operations at international standards-setting bodies.

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Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company CEO C.C. Wei declined to comment on the “unfounded speculation” that it landed a Commerce Department license to ship to Huawei. “We are complying fully with the regulations,” he said during an Oct. 15 investor call. The company also won’t comment “on our status right now” with Huawei, he said. TSMC is “evaluating the impact to the semiconductor industry” from new export restrictions on Semiconductor Manufacturing International, China’s largest chipmaker (see 2009280022), Wei said. Its factory “capacity planning” is based on “the long-term demand profile” in 5G and high-performance computing as a hedge against unexpected disruptions, he said.

The White House released a national strategy for critical and emerging technologies that it said will better synchronize agency efforts amid technology competition with China. The strategy builds on export control efforts carried out by the Commerce Department, a senior administration official said, and will allow government offices to better align their strategies as the U.S. restricts Chinese access to sensitive U.S. technologies.

The House Foreign Affairs Committee is reviewing new export controls on items related to semiconductors, potentially including design elements and software, said Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas. McCaul said some U.S. export restrictions may need to be strengthened to address continuing Chinese attempts to steal U.S. technologies.