Korea arrests Chinese for ship technology theft

A Chinese inspector sent by a US ship classification society to a South Korean shipyard has been arrested for allegedly stealing key technology, prosecutors said Wednesday.

The 35-year-old unidentified man was arrested on 27 June and indicted for stealing technology to manufacture oil drilling ships and platforms, said the prosecutors? office in the southern port city of Busan.

“This case shows that China is using all means available to steal advanced technology from our shipbuilding industry,” the office said in a statement. It said the American Bureau of Shipping, at the request of a Chinese state shipping company, sent the man last September to supervise the building of a ship at an undisclosed yard.

South Korea is the world’s largest shipbuilder but China is catching up fast. Korean shipyards led by Samsung Heavy Industries have received more than 90% of global orders for offshore platforms for oil development, which require high standards of technology. South Korea is sensitive to technology leaks and in July last year prosecutors charged four local shipbuilding engineers with leaking technology to China.