In another not particularly surprising but still infuriating incident announced by Federal Bureau of Investigation Deputy Director Kash Patel, it appears that a multinational company headquartered in California sold highly important and sensitive semiconductor design technology to a communist Chinese military university. The company faced civil and criminal penalties.
As background, America has attempted to preserve its military and civil technological advantage over China, particularly in the realm of military electronics and artificial intelligence, by blocking the export of certain high-tech semiconductor designs to the People’s Republic of China, as those semiconductor designs are integral to such technologies and can only be produced by a few companies.
So, when a company breaks the law and exports such high-tech semiconductor technology to China, thus blunting the Western advantage, it is a major problem. In fact, given that it aids an enemy of America, many, particularly on the right, see it as treasonous. Such just occurred in California, where the FBI caught a company selling sophisticated semiconductor equipment to a university affiliated with the Chinese military.
Announcing as much in a post on X, FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino described the company involved and the penalties it will face, saying, “This week, Cadence Design Systems Inc., a multinational electronic design automation software and hardware company, plead GUILTY to committing criminal export violations and will pay more than $140 MILLION in criminal and civil penalties.”
Continuing, Bongino noted that the company has pleaded guilty to having sold the very important and sensitive semiconductor technology, saying, “Cadence sold SENSITIVE semiconductor design tools and technology to a RESTRICTED Chinese military university involved in the development of supercomputers which are believed to support military and nuclear explosion simulations in China.”
Building on that, Bongino put the issue in context and explained that America’s best innovators and companies need to be protected from America’s enemies and that the FBI will remain vigilant on that point. He began, “Our country’s talented technology innovators – particularly within Silicon Valley’s semiconductor industry – stand amongst the best in the world.”
Adding to that by explaining what the FBI is doing under him and Director Kash Patel to protect American companies and innovators from America’s enemies abroad, Bongino noted, “Your FBI, along with our partners, will continue to protect our most sensitive industries and innovators from reaching the hands of our ENEMIES.”
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Bongino further added to that point by noting that semiconductors are particularly important and that the FBI will work continually and with vigor to ensure they are protected from foreign spying, saying, “This plea deal is a wakeup call for the semiconductor industry to take our export control laws SERIOUSLY and to better monitor where our leading-edge technology is going. The FBI will never stop working to identify and stop these ILLEGAL actions.”
Concluding, Deputy Director Bongino thanked the various teams involved in cracking down on this, saying, “I’d like to highlight the great work of @FBISanFrancisco, the FBI Counterintelligence Division, and the @CommerceGov for their continued efforts to safeguard this technology. This work is CRITICAL to defending the homeland and protecting you, the American people.”
Watch Lee Zeldin comment on the communist Chinese land ownership issue here:
Featured image credit: By Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=55653121