China “stole” sensitive technology from a British factory in the latest espionage scandal, it has been claimed.
Chinese technology company Wingtech allegedly transferred sensitive production information from a semiconductor plant in Greater Manchester.
The plant in Stockport is owned by Nexperia, a Dutch subsidiary of the company.
Last month, officials in the Netherlands seized Nexperia from Wingtech after “signals [of] serious administrative shortcomings”.
During the takeover, Chief Executive Xuezheng Zhang was removed from his position and Cold War national security laws were enacted.
However, in response, Beijing barred Nexperia’s Chinese operations from exporting semiconductor chips.
The technology is vital in electronics, especially cars, and the move stands to cause chaos in car production across the UK and Europe.
According to the Dutch authorities, it is now thought that Mr Xuezheng passed on trade secrets from the facility in Manchester to a site in China which is also owned.
Dutch authorities sezied Nexperia from the Chinese company Wingtech
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GETTY
Officials told the Dutch newspaper, NRC, that Wingtech appropriated techniques to manufacture Mosfets, a type of power chip made in Nexperia’s Stockport plant.
Although Mosfets are not considered cutting edge, the Stockport facility boasted specialist manufacturing techniques which maximised efficiency.
It is believed that Wingtech allegedly had plans to close facilities in Europe after using these specialist techniques to shift production to WSS, its Chinese subsidiary.
However, the company denied the allegations and said no technology had been transferred.
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Nexperia manufactures power chips known as mosfets
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REUTERS
It also claimed it had remained transparent about WSS and Nexperia working together and that the Chinese factory had only been set up to support Nexperia.
Matt Western, the Labour chair of the joint committee on national security strategy, said: “I’m deeply concerned by these allegations and will be watching developments closely.”
He told Politico: “In the UK, as in Europe, some of our most critical supply chains are highly exposed to malicious actors.
“It’s vitally important that we ensure businesses have all the tools they need to reinforce resilience.”
The facility in Stockport boasted specialist manufacturing techniques which maximised efficiency
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REUTERS
The MP added that these allegations would be considered by his committee during its inquiry on national security strategy.
A spokesman for Wingtech said: “The collaboration with WSS was a strategic business decision made by Nexperia within the context of the global semiconductor industry to enhance its technology platform and competitiveness, address capacity bottlenecks and strengthen its supply chain layout.
“The process was conducted with transparency and in full compliance with the company’s internal governance procedures and the support of external legal counsel.”
Wingtech added that Xuezheng abstained from director votes about WSS while at Nexperia due to his links with the Chinese company.
In a later statement, the company said: “There is no ‘technology transfer’ or ‘technology theft’ as alleged in any reports, nor is there any so-called ‘transmission of company secrets’ as mentioned.
“Furthermore, Wingtech Technology is the lawful controlling shareholder of Nexperia, and Nexperia is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Wingtech Technology – there is no need, nor any basis, to ‘steal’ technology from a subsidiary.”
Although the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs declined to comment on the claims of theft from Stockport, it said: “The actions of the CEO [Xuezheng] were undermining of production capacities within Europe.”
The Department cited “misused of financial resources for the CEO’s self-enrichment as well as his other companies in China, and the transfer of intellectual property rights to a foreign entity owned by the CEO outside the Nexperia group.”