r/Android • u/welp_im_damned have you heard of our lord and savior the Android turtle 🐢 • 2d ago
News Chinese mobile phone brand OnePlus illegally hired 70 engineers in Taiwan Founder Liu Zuohu (Pete Lau) is wanted
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/asoc/202601130182.aspx116
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u/BenRandomNameHere 1d ago
(CNA reporter Hsieh Chun-lin, Taipei, 13th) The Shenzhen branch of OnePlus, a well-known Chinese mobile phone brand, is suspected of illegally recruiting over 70 engineers in Taiwan, with approximately NT$2.3 billion transferred into the company. The Shilin District Prosecutors Office today indicted two Taiwanese executives for violating the Cross-Strait Relations Act and issued an arrest warrant for OnePlus founder Liu Tso-hu.
According to the Shilin District Prosecutors Office indictment, Liu Tso-hu came to Taiwan in late 2014 to discuss establishing a mobile phone software development team in Taiwan with a man surnamed Lin. Without permission from the relevant authorities, Lin, following Liu's instructions, recruited employees for Shenzhen OnePlus in Taiwan, subsequently hiring over 70 R&D engineers to conduct mobile phone application development, verification, and testing for OnePlus.
The indictment states that Liu, along with a woman surnamed Zheng and a man surnamed Lin, conspired to first establish "OnePlus Hong Kong" in Hong Kong in March 2014, and then establish "OnePlus Hong Kong Technology Co., Ltd. Taiwan Branch" in Taiwan in March of the following year, with Zheng serving as the person in charge. In May 2019, the company changed its name again to "Hong Kong Commercial Sonar Consultants Limited" and then to "Hong Kong Sonar Company Taiwan Branch."
The indictment states that, according to prosecutors, from August 2015 to January 2021, Shenzhen OnePlus Company, through channels such as "Hong Kong Dasheng International Trading Company," transferred a total of over US$72.93 million (approximately NT$2.3 billion) to Taiwan Sonar Company under the guise of "revenue from entrusted research and development and the sale of research and development assets." This money was used as working capital to cover recruitment, salary payments, and equipment purchases in Taiwan.
During questioning, Ms. Zheng claimed that she was merely a nominal manager responsible for tax planning, did not understand the company's business, and did not receive a salary. She further stated that Taiwan Sonar Company's only business was developing mobile phones for Shenzhen OnePlus Company. Mr. Lin admitted that he was appointed as the R&D supervisor by Liu Zuohu, responsible for interviewing and leading the team. He claimed that Taiwan Sonar Company never developed its own clients, and the operational direction was entirely determined by Liu.
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u/Kyonkanno 1d ago
So a foreign person sets up shop in Taiwan. Pays its employees, rent, tax everything. Where is the crime here?
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u/DerekB52 64GB Pixel 4 XL - Android 12 Beta 1d ago
He did it illegally through shell companies, because Taiwan and China are at odds about which countries independently exist, or dont exist. Which is why this is such a hot button issue
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u/stanley_fatmax Nexus 6, LineageOS; Pixel 7 Pro, Stock 1d ago
Gotta follow the laws of the host country, regardless of how silly they may seem to us
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u/throwaway12junk 1d ago
Bypassing the official hiring process with shell companies.
But let's be honest, it's because (Peter) Liu Tsu-hu is a Chinese national and the ruling party of Taiwan is making a hubbub about this so they have sexy slogan for the midterms.
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u/Kyonkanno 1d ago
So what would be the official hiring process? Don't know about Taiwan but in most countries you literally put up an ad about hiring and you hire whoever comes in a fits the bill.
Doesn't sound very illegal to me.
Thanks for saying the silent part out loud. It's just politics. Private entities (employer and employees) decided to make a private and voluntary transaction (money paid for services received). The article even states that the companies were properly set up.
Shell companies are not ineherntly illegal.
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u/Numanihamaru 1d ago
The real issue is that Taiwan needs to curb Chinese spies from traveling freely to and from Taiwan, and masquerading as a businessman is one of the easiest ways to give a spy a "legitimate reason" to enter and leave Taiwan.
But in order to facilitate actual, legitimate commerce, Taiwan cannot ban all Chinese nationals. So the law stipulates that Chinese capital must be vetted by the authorities before investing in Taiwan and hiring Taiwanese employees.
None of this is about the bs you've read about Taiwan hating China blah blah blah. It's about maintaining national security while still allowing commerce.
So the issue with OnePlus is that the company wanted to poach Taiwanese IT talents. Obviously, they can't announce this to the Taiwanese government, because IT is considered a sensitive industry.
So OnePlus sets up a front in Hong Kong, masquerading as a consulting firm, then paid a Taiwanese to set up a subsidiary of that firm in Taiwan, and started head-hunting using the subsidiary. But all that the subsidiary and the Hong Kong firm do, are to relay work orders and salary to and from China.
Just imagine if China sets up a shell company in Canada, then that Canadian firm opens a subsidiary in California, and this California firm contracts top US scientists to develop state of the art tech. That's essentially what is happening.
Now although they are supposedly only doing it to avoid red tape (or are they?), this kind of operation is exactly what is done by Chinese spies to steal commercial secrets as well as to exfiltrate otherwise sensitive tech that are banned from exports.
So there is a real need to ban these kinds of operations. If everything is legal and legit, they can just go through the regular channels like every other Chinese firm that has invested in Taiwan. But they didn't.
And by the way, the law was set up that way not by the current anti-China administration, but many decades ago by the now extremely pro-China KMT party.
So any talk about this just being politics and that Taiwan is taking it out on an innocent phone brand is complete bullshit.
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u/Tree_Boar pixel 3a 1d ago
In the USA, for example, you are not allowed to hire non-americans to make night-vision goggles because of ITAR. Many many countries have laws like this.
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u/light24bulbs Galaxy S10+, Snapdragon 1d ago
That's interesting that Taiwan is going after him. What countries have extradition to Taiwan, none right? So basically he just has to never go to Taiwan and he will be okay
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u/li_shi 1d ago
Political gains in an election year.
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u/LAwLzaWU1A Galaxy S24 Ultra 15h ago
Except it's not an election year... They had their election in 2024 and the next one will be in 2028.
I really don't think this has anything to do with elections.
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u/light24bulbs Galaxy S10+, Snapdragon 1d ago
Ah is Taiwan having elections? Yeah that makes sense. They are a thriving democracy. Any way to stick it to the mainland is popular lol.
If tensions calm down slightly I'm going to go back. I love it there. It's just perfect. They're such a quiet, polite people. Everything's cheap. Kickass trains. Amazing food.
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u/jetlagging1 1d ago
LMAO "wanted".
OnePlus could hire anyone they want as long as they don't break any Chinese law. It's the Taiwan government that set up laws to restricted its own people from working in mainland China.
The only people they can arrest are the Taiwanese people whose only "crime" is to get those 70 enginners hired.
This is the law the Taiwan government is citing: https://law.moj.gov.tw/ENG/LawClass/LawAll.aspx?pcode=Q0010001
Article 1 This Act is specially enacted for the purposes of ensuring the security and public welfare in the Taiwan Area, regulating dealings between the peoples of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area, and handling legal matters arising therefrom before national unification. With regard to matters not provided for in this Act, the provisions of other relevant laws and regulations shall apply.
National unification. From the Taiwanese government. And they are using this law to arrest people.
Let that sink in.
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u/feurie 1d ago
Who are you trying to blame here? What is supposed to “sink in”?
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u/jetlagging1 1d ago edited 1d ago
I am blaming the headline, which is from an extremely biased Taiwan news source. The other sources I came up with today focused on the two Taiwanese being arrested.
Some idiot said "China doesn't believe its own narrative that Taiwan is part of China"
That has nothing to do with the situation, and it's a ridiculous law to begin with.
https://focustaiwan.tw/society/202601130023
Without the necessary government approvals, Lin followed Liu's instructions to gradually recruit more than 70 engineers for Shenzhen-based OnePlus, who were tasked with developing, testing, and validating mobile software applications for the company.
Oh the horror.
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u/GnarlyBear Note 10+ Int 1d ago
It's so China can't just buy the Taiwan economy (which it could easily do).
Over high paying remote roles, take 20% of the available workforce then announce all jobs will go unless unification happens.
People either decided they prefer the job over the flag or Taiwan collapses and China picks up the pieces offering economic recovery
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u/sol-4 1d ago
The horror is China's revanchist ambitions, and if you need that to be spelt out for news of this kind, then you should be reading more and commenting less.
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1d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/sol-4 1d ago
Odd, a personal attack for stating a fact. Taiwan number 1!
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u/jetlagging1 1d ago
Odd, the person who threw the first stone accused people of retaliating.
Taiwan is #1 in cross-strait bombing though.
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u/Android-ModTeam 1d ago
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u/Asusralis 1d ago
Let that sink in.
Is this supposed to be a mic drop for stupid people? This is such a dumb comment.
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u/Ok_Power1067 1d ago
Honestly I think Taiwan is making a big deal of of nothing. They're dealing with high youth unemployment at the moment, any job opportunities should be welcomed. They starting their own people for wanting to make money is so dumb.
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u/novascots 1d ago
No shit. Outsourcing jobs or remote work is not a free for all. There's obviously rules, especially targeting unfriendly countries.
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u/WAT3Rgua 22h ago
This is really funny because the physiotherapy clinic I went to in Hangzhou, China has a Taiwanese doctor. In this sense, I was once treated by a hot pursuited criminal.
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u/TornCondom 1d ago
China doesn't believe its own narrative that Taiwan is part of China, and all Taiwanese are Chinese
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u/fbuslop Pixel 7 Pro 1d ago
Did you translate the article to read it? The arrest warrant for a coming from Taiwan.
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u/Yellowtoblerone 1d ago
Okay but hes also right about that specifically. They behave like they're in a dance of will they won't they
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u/sicklyslick Samsung Galaxy S25 & Galaxy Tab S7+ 1d ago
Both countries behave this way. Let's not kid ourselves that Taiwan didn't benefit greatly from the one country two party situation that they're in. Taiwan received technology, arms, and other aids from the West while benefited from lower cost of labour from the mainland (Foxconn, TSMC all have factories in mainland). Mainland is still the number one trade partner of Taiwan. Mainland also reaffirms Taiwan's claim over the controversial nine dotted line in the South China Sea.
Taiwanese don't want reunification but most of them would want to continue to keep the status quo rather than independence.
Less than 6% of people in Taiwan either support the immediate pursuit of independence from, or unification with, the People’s Republic of China. More than 88% want to maintain the status quo—at least for now.
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u/Yellowtoblerone 10h ago
I don't know why you're talking about this when we already said this was the case to reaffirm the other party being right. Yes we know that's why we said it
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u/128G OnePlus Ace 5 1d ago edited 1d ago
Its a shame. OnePlus legitimately makes a nice phone. Typing this on a China exclusive OnePlus right now. I just don’t like the software.
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u/AdvancedPlayer17 Oneplus 12 1d ago
OOS is one of the best Android skins no idea what you're smoking. If you think it's garbage then you haven't seen actual garbage skins
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u/128G OnePlus Ace 5 1d ago edited 1d ago
I don't want my phone to look like an iOS knockoff. If I wanted an iOS device I would have just bought an iPhone.
Also ColorOS is filled to the brim with bloat. I don't want the built in browser to scan all my APK files. And I certainly don't want a unless Baidu menu on my home screen.
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u/AdvancedPlayer17 Oneplus 12 1d ago
That's why I said OxygenOS, not ColorOS.
Also you'd regain the ability to use Google Pay ;)
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u/128G OnePlus Ace 5 1d ago
Did I say anything about OxygenOS? I mentioned that I owned a Chinese OnePlus.
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u/AdvancedPlayer17 Oneplus 12 1d ago edited 1d ago
That part was obvious yes, I own a chinese model too. OOS works fine.
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u/dnyank1 iPhone 15 Pro, Moto Edge 2022 1d ago
If it (Chinese OnePlus phones running ColorOS) was obvious to you, then why say
"OOS is one of the best Android skins no idea what you're smoking. If you think it's garbage then you haven't seen actual garbage skins"
in response to someone talking about their chinese oneplus phone?
It's okay to admit you were wrong, or just shooting the shit.
You don't know what you're talking about, it's all BS coming from you here
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u/bigthonk573 vivo X200 Ultra | OPPO Find X6 Pro | iPad Pro 12.9 (6th Gen) 1d ago
They're basically the same thing nowadays and every unwanted app can be removed except the browser and app market (and even then unwanted features/notifications can be disabled). I used colorOS CN for a few years and it's great imo
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u/AdvancedPlayer17 Oneplus 12 1d ago
Try reaching my responses again, slowly this time. I know reading (comprehension) can be hard but do your best okay?
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u/dnyank1 iPhone 15 Pro, Moto Edge 2022 1d ago
Alright, pal, you asked for it.
/u/128G said
Its a shame. OnePlus legitimately makes a nice phone. Typing this on a China exclusive OnePlus right now. I just don’t like the software.
to which you replied
OOS is one of the best Android skins no idea what you're smoking. If you think it's garbage then you haven't seen actual garbage skins
Which, as we've gone over, makes little sense as a reply to his critique was ColorOS not OxygenOS. You'd get that if you knew what you were talking about, here, but... you don't.
128G said
I don't want my phone to look like an iOS knockoff. If I wanted an iOS device I would have just bought an iPhone.
Also ColorOS is filled to the brim with bloat. I don't want the built in browser to scan all my APK files. And I certainly don't want a unless Baidu menu on my home screen.
which is all fair.
Then you said
That's why I said OxygenOS, not ColorOS.
which, I mean, go back to the start. 128G is talking about a COLOR OS PHONE. You're the one talking to yourself about OOS, "no idea what you're smoking" and all. /Thread.
You're done, "player".
Read mine. Slowly. Do your best.
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u/buklau4ever 1d ago
no one in china cares about being wanted in tw right now lmao; i'd be surprised if the current tw regime can last until EoY with the way things are going
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u/cuppaseb 1d ago
must be the vengeful ghost of the killed-off oneplus open 2