Newport Wafer Fab owner’s 2005 jail term

THE founder of the Chinese company that owns Britain’s biggest microchip plant was once handed a 17-month jail sentence over allegations he acquired stolen technology, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal.

In 2005, Zhang Xuezheng, known as Wing, was sentenced to a year and five months, according to local reports, following charges of buying trade secrets from ZTE, the Chinese tech giant.

Mr Zhang is the founder of Shanghaibased Wingtech and the chief executive of Nexperia, a Dutch subsidiary that acquired semiconductor plant Newport Wafer Fab in 2021.

Nexperia’s £63m acquisition of the Welsh factory has stoked fears of technology being transferred to China. Grant Shapps, business secretary at the time, ordered Nexperia to sell its majority stake in the facility on national security grounds in November.

The company is seeking a judicial review in an attempt to retain control of the plant. A spokesman for Nexperia said the company was “aware of old press reports about a dispute in China” but said it was “later resolved allowing Mr Zhang to do business freely”.

China’s Procuratorial Daily said, Mr Zhang recruited staff at ZTE, his former employer, to acquire tech secrets and develop rival products at companies he set up in Shanghai and Shenzhen.

A district court in Shenzhen sentenced Mr Zhang and his two co-conspirators to prison and handed him a 50,000 yuan (£6,000) fine. More recent local profiles of Mr Zhang, whose net worth is estimated at $1.3bn (£1.1bn) by Forbes, point to gaps in his career history between 2004 and 2006.