US court gives Chinese chipmaker access to Micron’s trade secrets
A landmark US economic espionage trial has allowed a Chinese chipmaker to review the trade secrets it is accused of stealing from US computer company Micron.
A US federal court ruled on Wednesday, October 23 that the Chinese company Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuit Company must be allowed review the documents in Hong Kong, despite strong protestations from Micron over supposed security risks.
According to Bloomberg, the US District Court for the Northern District of California heard during proceedings that “there is no meaningful difference” between the information-security risks in Hong Kong and China.
Micron reportedly told the court that, on a heatmap where trade secrets were at risk of being misappropriated by China, “Hong Kong would be off the charts”.
The US Department of Justice (DoJ) unveiled its case against Fujian Jinhua in November 2018 as the first prosecution as part of its so-called “China Initiative” targeting economic espionage.
The US government added Fujian Jinhua to its Entity List that same week, meaning it cannot do business in the country.
Micron expressed fears that Hong Kong was not a safe venue for the information to be reviewed.
“We should not put Hong Kong on the table,” the company told the court.
Judge Maxine Chesney of the Northern California district court said at a hearing on Wednesday that: “I don’t find that Hong Kong is in the same category as mainland China.”.
“We have two very reputable law firms here that have some credibility, historically at least, of standing by their word,” Chesney ruled.
Hong Kong was formally transferred from British sovereignty to China in 1997, although it remains a nominally autonomous “special administrative region”.
The relationship between Hong Kong and China has proven a bitterly divisive issue. The city-state has been engulfed in violent clashes between protestors and police for months, for which China has faced heavy international criticism.
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