Belgian federal prosecutors said Monday that a 52-year-old dual Chinese-Belgian national will face trial over semiconductor espionage charges, the second China-linked spy case to emerge in the country within months. The man held a senior research role at BelGaN BV, a gallium nitride chipmaker in Oudenaarde that filed for bankruptcy in July 2024 and shed more than 400 workers.
He was detained in May at Brussels airport while preparing to fly to Beijing, prosecutors said. They also allege he doubled as a director of a Chinese firm doing similar manufacturing, a company created just months after he joined BelGaN and financed by a Chinese investment fund. The charges span espionage, participation in a criminal organization, misuse of company assets and unlawful disclosure of trade secrets.
At stake is production know-how for gallium nitride power chips, which serve electric vehicles, aerospace and military systems. Investigators believe the intellectual property moved abroad without authorization and are still looking for a second suspect, a Chinese national local media have identified as the foundry’s last chief executive.
The case echoes a pattern Belgium’s state security service has flagged for years, in which Chinese funds buy into small local chip ventures, replicate the technology at home, then leave the European company to fail. Brussels authorities separately detained a Chinese-Canadian in July over suspected spying during an internship at NATO headquarters.
