[Editorial] CXMT, Which Stole Samsung’s Technology and Now Threatens It, Should Be Taken to an International Tribunal

Court testimony has emerged that ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), China’s largest DRAM maker, tried to steal Samsung Electronics’ core technologies from the very start in order to develop its products. Allegations of technology leakage by CXMT have long been raised, but the claim that it systematically pursued technology theft from the founding stage is shocking. A former employee who worked at Samsung Electronics for 28 years and joined CXMT as a founding member in 2016 testified in court that "the company had neither a research lab nor facilities at the time, and it had no intention of developing technology through its own research." If this is confirmed, it is a serious industrial espionage crime and must be met with strong punishment.
After its founding, CXMT recorded astonishing growth. In just over a decade, it rose to fourth place in the global DRAM market, behind Samsung Electronics, SK hynix, and Micron Technology, Inc. It still lags behind Korean companies in market share and in cutting-edge technologies such as high-bandwidth memory (HBM), but it is rapidly catching up in commodity DRAM. If it grew by stealing others’ R&D achievements and using them as a shortcut, that cannot be called normal corporate competition.
China’s technology theft cases are far from isolated. Of the 33 overseas technology leakage cases uncovered last year, 18 involved China. Not only semiconductors but also Korea’s key industries, including displays and batteries, were heavily targeted. The methods have also become increasingly sophisticated. Some set up R&D companies in Korea to disguise the theft as legitimate job changes, while others used consulting and joint research as cover to recruit key personnel. Universities and research institutes are also being targeted.
Our response has been slow and belated. Fines and sentencing standards for the overseas leakage of state core technologies have recently been significantly strengthened. Starting next month, there will also be a path to apply espionage charges to industrial spying. It is fortunate that the punishment level has finally been raised, but we must ask whether that alone is enough. If a crime can save years of development time and trillions of won in research costs by stealing a single technology, then the price paid when caught must outweigh the benefit. Only then will there be a deterrent effect.
Advanced technology powers such as the United States and Taiwan treat technology theft not merely as a trade-secret dispute between companies, but as a crime that threatens national security. The United States punishes economic espionage on behalf of foreign powers as a felony and imposes massive fines on companies, reflecting the value of the stolen technology and the R&D costs saved. Taiwan does something similar. Korea should also go beyond simply raising statutory penalties. It must thoroughly recover criminal proceeds and impose enormous financial liability even on companies that gained unfair profits through technology theft. In particular, when foreign technology-theft companies compete with Korean firms in the global market, domestic sanctions alone are not enough. The government should actively support Korean companies so they can use evidence secured through domestic investigations and trials in lawsuits abroad, including complaints to the United States International Trade Commission (USITC).
Comprehensive measures to prevent leaks before they happen are also urgently needed. Security training for personnel handling state core technologies, post-retirement management, and even jobs that allow them to continue research in Korea must all be carefully managed. Korea must actively prevent damage from technology leaks through the highest level of industrial security.