Taiwan is investigating 11 Chinese technology companies, including the country’s leading chipmaker, on suspicion of illegally poaching its engineers, an indication of Beijing’s reliance on its neighbour’s world-leading semiconductor expertise.

Shanghai-based Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC) set up a Samoa-registered entity to “poach talent in Taiwan as a fake foreign investor”, Taiwan’s Justice Ministry’s Investigation Bureau (MJIB), the country’s equivalent to the FBI, said on Friday.

Taiwan screens investment from China and Chinese-owned entities more tightly than other foreign investment. But Chinese companies have long sought to circumvent these restrictions to invest in Taiwan through legal structures set up in third countries.