TAIPEI, Taiwan -- The founder and chairman of United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC) announced late last month that he plans to resign from the world's second-largest contract chip maker because of a dispute with the Taiwanese government, which he said is meddling in his company's business affairs.

Robert Tsao's planned resignation is the latest salvo in an ongoing battle between UMC and the government of Taiwan over alleged illegal investments by the company in Chinese chip maker He Jian Technology (Suzhou) Co.

UMC ran afoul of Taiwanese regulators in February, when police raided its offices in Taipei and Hsinchu and detained a number of Taiwanese employees of He Jian. The government has been gathering evidence that UMC invested in He Jian without applying for permission to do so. That is illegal in Taiwan, which carefully controls investments in China's semiconductor industry.

In a statement, Tsao said he will resign at a meeting of UMC's board in March and hand over the chairmanship to Jackson Hu, the company's CEO.

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