Head of research at Belgian chip factory detained in May. According to prosecutors, he simultaneously ran a company in China that manufactured the same thing

The Belgian federal prosecutor confirmed that a former research manager at the chip factory BelGaN in Oudenaarde has been in investigative detention since May 10. The fifty-two-year-old man with Belgian and Chinese citizenship, who lived in Leuven, was arrested at Zaventem airport when boarding a flight to Beijing. He faces suspicion of espionage, participation in a criminal organization, misappropriation of company property, and unauthorized disclosure of trade secrets. La Libre ↗

The case was uncovered by reporters from public broadcaster RTBF and newspaper De Standaard, which the prosecutor subsequently confirmed. Investigators from the federal judicial police of East Flanders conducted several house searches and seized data carriers and electronic communications, which they are now analyzing. A second suspect, the factory's former general manager, is still being sought. VRT NWS ↗

Mirror company in Fuzhou province

At the core of the accusation is a structure that the prosecutor described sparingly but clearly. According to it, the man held a leading position in research at the Belgian company while simultaneously serving as a manager at a Chinese company with similar production, which was created several months after his arrival and was financed by a Chinese investment fund. That company is called Gankool and is based in Fuzhou province. La Libre ↗

It was not a classified position. In March 2023, at a time when he was leading research in Belgium, he appeared at a conference in China and presented himself as director of Gankool. The prosecutor adds a cautious formulation to the file: "The investigation may point to unauthorized transfer of specialized intellectual property." VRT NWS ↗

The factory was sold for two years. The buyer was found in Hong Kong

The plant in Oudenaarde is not a newcomer. It was founded in 1983 as Mietec, then passed through Alcatel Microelectronics and AMI Semiconductor, until American onsemi bought it in 2008. As part of a strategy to streamline production, it put it up for sale and looked for a buyer for two years. eeNews Europe ↗

It finally found a buyer. BelGaN Group BV was created in autumn 2021 as a joint venture of two Hong Kong companies, Rockley Management (HK) and Wuxi Group, and was led by Alan Zhen Zhou - the same former general manager whom Belgian authorities are looking for today. The new owner also took over more than 400 employees and announced that it would make Oudenaarde a leading European gallium nitride chip foundry. eeNews Europe ↗

The sale closed on February 8, 2022, and onsemi presented it as a purely operational decision. "The proposed divestitures show that we are well on our way to achieve an optimized manufacturing network," then declared general manager Hassane El-Khoury, stating that the transaction preserves jobs for affected plant employees and enables the company to move production elsewhere. Electronics Weekly ↗

It's worth noting that no one hid it. The technical website eeNews Europe already put in the headline then that a Belgian factory was bought by "GaN startup with China connections", and in the text also mentioned the Hong Kong parent companies. The information was public from day one. All that was missing was an office to look at it. eeNews Europe ↗

Equipment did not leave as investment, but as auction

In July 2024, the company went bankrupt and 440 people lost their jobs. The production equipment was then sold from late November to mid-March in an online auction divided into approximately 1,800 items and raised over 23 million euros. Semiconductor Today ↗

What matters is who was buying. According to The Brussels Times, Chinese companies were among the main buyers - and authorities only subsequently discovered which items would need export licenses to China. The sequence is the entire problem in a nutshell: first it was auctioned off, then they dealt with what could actually be exported. eeNews Europe ↗

The bill stayed at home. Closure is set to cost local authorities over 1.1 million euros, and support from the European Globalization Adjustment Fund was requested for 417 of the dismissed. TrendForce ↗

The empty building was eventually bought by a European investor for 20.35 million euros and plans to invest 200 to 250 million into photonic chip production - initially about a hundred people in 2026, by 2030 there should be almost six hundred. Gallium nitride production will not return to Oudenaarde. Semiconductor Today ↗

State security described this procedure before it was exposed

The most unpleasant thing about the case is that it's not a surprise. Belgian state security described this mechanism in its annual report for 2025 almost verbatim: Chinese companies "invest in Belgian enterprises, research centers or spin-offs - preferably in smaller entities that develop promising technologies but are underfunded - in order to gain access to technology and then create a mirror company in China that will manufacture the same technology on a larger scale. The parent company is subsequently sold off, preferably at a profit." VRT NWS ↗

Kenneth Lasoen, a professor of intelligence services and national security at Antwerp University, adds to this that practically every state conducts espionage, the difference is where the boundaries are. According to him, with Russia and China it applies that "some countries will not be frightened by anything" to obtain information. The Russian embassy in Brussels allegedly has the most eavesdropping antennas on its roof in Europe. VRT NWS ↗

Screening will catch purchases, but not auctions

Belgium today screens foreign investments - an inter-agency screening mechanism has been in place since July 1, 2023 and applies to investors outside the European Union. FPS Foreign Affairs ↗

However, the transaction that is now at the center of the investigation was concluded in February 2022, almost seventeen months before that mechanism was created. That is the first hole and it is sealed - today such a deal would have to be reported.

The second limit is of a different nature and continues. The most valuable part did not leave Belgium as an investment, but as a bankruptcy auction - and the sale of an insolvent's property is not a foreign investment, so screening does not even target it. The state could only react afterwards, and only with the tool of export licenses. Jolyce Demely, general director of Agoria for Flanders, says that while screening exists, there is a lack of support for companies in protecting know-how: the Netherlands has a contact point for knowledge security and according to her, one would be useful in Flanders too. VRT NWS ↗

Why to read this from Central Europe

onsemi sold the factory as part of a strategy to divest from productions it did not consider core. That same onsemi simultaneously announced an investment of over two billion dollars, roughly 46 billion crowns, to expand the plant in Rožnov pod Radhoštěm - according to then Prime Minister Petr Fiala, the largest investment in modern Czech history. The number of jobs there is to increase from roughly 1,700 to 3,000. ČeskéNoviny.cz ↗

That project, however, does not stand on solid ground. The promised state support according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade does not meet the original conditions of the agreement and further proceedings are being negotiated. ČT24 ↗

The lesson from Oudenaarde is therefore not "don't sell to the Chinese." It is more pragmatic: European chip production is mostly in the hands of companies that decide about it according to their own portfolio logic, and when such a plant ends up on the market, the state can only choose from the buyers who come. And if it then falls into bankruptcy, its most valuable part leaves by a route that no screening monitors.

Read also: Chinese administrator of Piraeus port faces espionage charges. The same company has a stake in Hamburg too

Limits of this view

This is a suspicion so far, not a judgment. The accused is in investigative detention, the file is being analyzed and no one has yet presented evidence to court that would stand up to scrutiny.

Even more importantly, what is not proven. La Libre headlined its article with the question of whether the factory was ruined for Chinese espionage - and it really is a question, not a finding. The crash could have had ordinary business reasons - the company itself cited lack of financing as the reason. No one has yet proven a connection between the criminal proceedings and the bankruptcy.

And finally: buying equipment in a bankruptcy auction is legal. Chinese buyers did nothing unlawful in it. The problem is that the Belgian state only addressed the question of export licenses after the auction had taken place.

Illustration photo: silicon wafer with chips. Author Enrique Jiménez, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0.

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