National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology

New Taipei City prosecutors indicted 10 people for running a scheme to divert controlled AI chips to China, netting more than 300 million New Taiwan dollars in the process.

The defendants allegedly evaded U.S. export controls by falsely claiming that the National Chung Shan Institute of Science and Technology, a Taiwanese defense research body, was the final destination for chips that were then resold to Hong Kong and ultimately funneled into Chinese military weapons systems.

They face charges of fraud, forgery, and money laundering.

This is the export control system under direct assault, and it illustrates why Taiwan's booming AI economy, which the Asian Development Bank now projects will grow at 11% this year on the back of 65% growth in tech exports in the first half of 2026, is also the epicenter of one of the highest stakes geopolitical contests of our era.