Taiwan wants to arrest OnePlus CEO for ‘stealing’ engineers

An active arrest warrant is out for OnePlus CEO and co-founder, Pete Lau, in Taiwan. Prosecutors say the company has engaged in illegal recruiting of engineers.

According to a report from Bloomberg, the Shilin district of Taiwan issued an arrest warrant for Pete Lau. Lau currently serves as the CEO of OnePlus, as well as the Chief Product Officer for its sister brand, Oppo.

The report notes that officials in Taiwan indicted two citizens who worked for the OnePlus CEO, prior to issuing his arrest warrant. They accused Pete Lau of recruiting upwards of 70 engineers from Taiwan to work in China for OnePlus and/or Oppo. This had reportedly been going on since 2014 and has contributed to what the Taiwanese government believes is a widespread effort to steal talent.

Together, the three employees, including Lau, may have violated Taiwan’s “Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area.” Both China and Taiwan share a common language and are separated by very little distance, positioning the engineers and other talent in a spot where they could viably work in either environment.

Still, government approval is required to hire local talent, due to restrictions put in place to prevent such a thing.

This isn’t the first time Taiwan has issued an arrest warrant for company executives on this basis. The report notes that the government made efforts to arrest Luxshare Precision Industry Co. chair Grace Wang. The company is responsible for component manufacturing for iPhones.

Taiwan hasn’t officially responded to a request for comment from the original source, though OnePlus did say that business is continuing as normal on its end.

The timing is curious, considering the OnePlus Open 2 recently leaked with excitement tempered by the company’s apparent move to cancel the device. The reasoning behind the company’s cancellation is unclear, and it’s seemingly unlikely that the Taiwan government’s recent announcement has much to do with it.

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