However, Lee's demise adds to a series of recent high-profile deaths in the island's high-tech industry, which is coming to grips with a global economic downturn and the emerging of the so-called “Red Supply Chain”.

According to an earlier report, industry analysts note that the lucrative yet highly stressful occupational environment has seen high level engineers with shorter life expectancies than the national average.

Moreover, within 2015, there already claimed five life of high-profile managers. Furthermore, while Realtek has emphasized that Lee's death is the result of an “exercising accident” in which he lost his footing, authorities are considering ruling the death a suicide since a protective barrier higher than the chest level of an adult exists on the eighth floor where he is believed to have fallen from.

Nevertheless, Realtek stated that there was no camera on the eighth floor, and there was no job adjustment of Lee Chao-cheng, so the cause of his death still remained unknown.