Chinese chip firm Fujian Jinhua denies stealing IP from Micron

SHANGHAI: Chinese chipmaker Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuit Co Ltd said it has not stolen any technology, after the US Justice Department indicted the state- back firm for stealing trade secrets.

The US Justice Department on Thursday indicted Fujian Jinhua, Taiwan’s United Microelectronics Corp and three individuals for conspiring to steal trade secrets from US semiconductor company Micron Technology Inc relating to its research and development of memory storage devices.

Earlier in the week, US President Donald Trump’s administration took action to cut Fujian Jinhua off from US suppliers.

“Behaviour to steal another firm’s technology does not exist,” Fujian Jinhua said in a statement posted on its official website.

“Micron regards the development of Fujian Jinhua as a threat and adopts various means to hamper and destroy the development of Fujian Jinhua,” the statement said.

The company “always attaches great importance to the protection of intellectual property rights,” Fujian Jinhua added.

The move to block Fujian Jinhua escalated what until now had been a business dispute into the realm of an international trade conflict between the United States and China.

The world’s top two economies are already waging a tariff war over their trade disputes, with US duties in place on US$ 250 billion worth of Chinese goods and Chinese duties on US$ 110 billion of US goods.

The US moves could seriously damage the ambitions of Fujian Jinhua, a firm of strategic importance to China. — Reuters