On Tuesday, the Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office confirmed that they have indicted two Taiwanese individuals for allegedly assisting Lau in setting up and running these unauthorized operations.
What are the allegations against Lau?
Prosecutors in Taiwan claim that Lau and OnePlus illegally hired more than 70 Taiwanese engineers over the last decade without the approval of local authorities.
Officials state that Lau and his associates have breached the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area, which governs business and employment interactions between Taiwan and China.
Taiwan is implementing measures to safeguard its technology and retain sensitive knowledge within the island. These engineers are highly skilled in areas like semiconductors and advanced technologies critical to Taiwan’s economy and national security.
Who is Pete Lau?
Born in May 1975, Lau is the co-founder and CEO of the Chinese smartphone company OnePlus. He also holds the position of Chief Product Officer (CPO) at his previous company, Oppo, in China.
Lau’s time at Oppo
He began his journey at Oppo as a hardware engineer, gradually advancing to become the director of the Blu-ray division.
During his tenure at Oppo, Lau gained recognition in the tech world for his commitment to product design.
Later, he transitioned into marketing and rose to the position of Vice President, where he was instrumental in introducing CyanogenMod, a customized Android operating system, for the Oppo N1 smartphone. After more than a decade at Oppo, he left the company in November 2013.
Lau launched OnePlus
In December 2013, Lau partnered with Carl Pei to establish OnePlus. Their objective was to create high-quality, well-crafted smartphones without imposing premium prices. The company began with a mere six employees.
Due to a lack of its own manufacturing facilities, Lau coordinated production at Oppo’s factories. The first smartphone, the OnePlus One, was officially announced in April 2014 and became available for online purchase that June.
OnePlus garnered favorable reviews from the tech community, pricing its products at nearly half the cost of competing flagship smartphones with similar specifications. Within a year, the company had sold almost one million smartphones.
