Two years ago Taiwanese semiconductor foundry United Microelectronics Corp. found itself in what we’ll call an uncomfortable position.

In an indictment unsealed on November 1, 2018, federal prosecutors accused UMC of partnering with a state-owned Chinese enterprise to steal trade secrets related to dynamic random access memory, or DRAM, from Idaho-based semiconductor company Micron Technology. Beyond the charges of trade secret theft, the government accused UMC of participating in economic espionage and sought penalties as high as $9 billion. Then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions used the unsealing of the indictment in the case to announce the DOJ’s new “China Initiative.”