Taiwan Issues Arrest Warrant For OnePlus CEO Over China Hires

Prosecutors in Taiwan issued an arrest warrant for the chief executive officer of the Chinese smartphone company OnePlus, stepping up the island’s efforts to block China’s tech players from recruiting Taiwanese talent. 

The Shilin district prosecutors office issued the warrant for CEO and co-founder Pete Lau and indicted two Taiwanese citizens who worked for him, according to an indictment by the office. OnePlus, a niche player whose phones run on a customized version of Android, is suspected of illegally recruiting more than 70 engineers in Taiwan.

The autonomous territory has stepped up its efforts to stop Chinese companies from raiding workers, who are often coveted because of their technical knowledge and experience. The Taiwanese officials put such limitations in place because they say recruiting from the semiconductor sector and other tech operations could jeopardize national security. 

Last year, Taiwanese investigators raided 34 locations on the island as part of a probe into the recruiting practices of 11 Chinese tech companies, including Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. Taiwan’s Investigation Bureau said at the time that SMIC set up a branch in Taiwan, disguised as a Samoan entity, to hire local talent.

Lau is one of the better-known founders in China’s tech industry, respected for an obsession for quality that helped make OnePlus a global player. The company is now one of the brands at Oppo, a leading smartphone company in China.

Lau and OnePlus didn’t immediately respond to Bloomberg’s request for comments.

The defendants are accused of violating the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area.

Taiwan has become a favorite spot for recruiting for China because the two share the same language and the island has some of the best tech talent in the world.

Taiwan doesn’t allow Chinese companies to set up local operations, or hire locally, without formal government approval. However, there have been many cases of Chinese tech companies setting up facilities in Taiwan and posing as foreign or local firms. 

The investigation bureau said in March of last year that it had opened over 100 investigations into Chinese companies illegally hiring Taiwanese engineers since it formed a task force for such probes in 2020.