Taiwan indicts 10 for smuggling US military-grade chips to China, parts routed to missile and radar programs using forged Taiwan defense institute orders

Taiwanese prosecutors have indicted 10 company leaders over Texas Instruments (TI) and Analog Devices (ADI) military-grade chips allegedly sold to China, the United Daily News reports. Orders for the chips allegedly used the name of Taiwan’s own defense research institute and were exported as “Made in Taiwan.” Investigators believe the chips ended up with Chinese research units building missiles and military radar.

The chips are high-speed military-industrial parts found on Taiwan’s strategic high-tech commodities list. The U.S. Commerce Department does not allow these to be shipped to China, Hong Kong, or Macau, and buyers must provide an end-user statement before the manufacturer ships. The equipment was cited to include radar receivers, electronic reconnaissance, jammers, ultrasound, communications gear, and antenna arrays.

Former employees and trading partners of three Taiwan distributors for ADI and TI, two large U.S. analog and mixed-signal chipmakers, used their own companies to order the chips. …