One of the suspects identified by police as “Mr Choi”, set up a joint venture in China and served as its CEO. He was assisted by a plant designer, “Mr Oh”, and tried to recruit other South Korean experts.

Choi is suspected of leaking Samsung memory technologies to build 20nm DRAM chips at Chengdu Gaozhen.

The police claim  Choi’s actions weakened South Korea’s competitiveness in the global chip war.

Authorities believe his arrest will halt the Chinese venture's operations. Investigators are still probing for other potential cases of industrial espionage.

This incident follows a similar case last May involving a former SK Hynix employee who was arrested for allegedly carrying 3,000 pages of semiconductor data for Huawei, which she denied.

Taiwan has also accused China of intellectual property theft and poaching engineers. Beijing has not commented on these accusations.

China relies heavily on Western chipmaking tools, making it vulnerable to sanctions.

Despite setbacks, China is determined to build its domestic chip industry. The country owns many rare earth mines essential for advanced silicon. The ongoing chip war between the US and China may be encouraging such actions.