The Justice Department on Thursday escalated its battle with China over criminal economic theft by indicting three Chinese nationals and a Chinese company with economic espionage.

China's state-owned Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuit, Co., Ltd and three Chinese nationals were charged in federal court in the Northern District of California for conspiring to steal trade secrets from U.S. semiconductor company Micron. Taiwan-based United Microelectronics Corp. was also charged in the same action.

Micron is worth an estimated $100 billion and controls roughly 20 to 25 percent of the dynamic random access memory industry.

“Chinese economic espionage against the United States has been increasing — and it has been increasing rapidly,” said Attorney General Jeff Sessions in prepared remarks. “I am here to say that enough is enough. With integrity and professionalism, the Department of Justice will aggressively prosecute such illegal activity.”

As part of its announcement, the Justice Department launched a new initiative that will focus on Chinese trade theft cases and bring them to “an appropriate conclusion quickly and effectively.”

“This administration’s new initiative will also address two major responsibilities of our National Security Division: the Foreign Investment Review Staff’s review of investments and licenses in U.S. infrastructure and telecommunications, and the Foreign Agent Registration Act Unit’s work to counter covert efforts to influence our leaders and the general public,” said Sessions.

Assistant Attorney General John Demers said that with the new initiative, “We will confront China’s malign behaviors and encourage them to conduct themselves as they aspire to be: one of the world’s leading nations.”

The new indictments, as well as the launch of the new initiative, come two days after the Justice Department unsealed charges against 10 Chinese intelligence officers, accusing them of a relentless campaign to hack into several United States aviation companies and steal corporate secrets over the last five years.

There has been flurry of charges in recent weeks, which Demers said Tuesday “is just the beginning.”

Earlier this month, the Justice Department announced a Chinese government spy was lured by FBI agents to Belgium, where he was extradited to the U.S. to be prosecuted for economic espionage charges.

And in September, federal officials alleged that an electrical engineer working on behalf of Chinese intelligence officials enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserves and sought to target other potential defense industry sources.