Before this case, American prosecutors had identified three trafficking hubs to China: Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. We find the South Asian front companies in the case against Wally Liaw, co-founder of Supermicro, indicted in March 2026 for having diverted 2.31 billion euros worth of equipment to Alibaba.
In Keelung, You, Wang and Chen are said to have transited at least one shipment through Japan, then to Hong Kong, before final delivery to mainland China. Until this case, NVIDIA chip smugglers avoided Japan, especially since the Japanese government has been working with Washington on export controls for advanced chips since 2023.
Taiwanese prosecutors say they opened their case without prior coordination with American authorities. Two days after the searches, Jensen Huang went to Taipei and publicly criticized Supermicro for its lack of rigor on export controls. For a year, Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te has methodically strengthened his control over chips. In June 2025, he included Huawei and SMIC on the list of strategic entities. In November, he ordered a sixty-day review of dual-use goods. With the Keelung arrests, the president moved from the administrative register to the criminal register for the first time.
