The Netherlands will face consequences if it blocks the export of high-end semiconductor equipment to China, Chinese Ambassador to the Netherlands Tan Jian said. The Hague announced new curbs on the export of chip-making technology this month, in step with the United States in curtailing China’s access to cutting-edge chips. “This will not be without consequences. I’m not going to speculate on countermeasures, but China won’t just swallow this,” Ambassador Tian said in an interview with Het Financieele Dagblad. The move would be “bad for China, bad for the Netherlands and world trade, and will have a negative effect on our relations and economic cooperation. You are a small country, and you have always been the standard bearer for free trade. You maintain your lead by selling to China and reinvesting the proceeds. It is clear that the Americans are behind this. Their policy is to pressure allies and suppress Chinese growth through coercion, harassment and domination,” Ambassador Tian said. “Let’s not abuse the security argument. This technology is not that advanced at all; this is for consumer use. China has never harmed European interests for hundreds of years,” he added.
The Netherlands is home to ASML, the world leader in producing the sophisticated photolithography machines that are essential to making advanced microchips. The chips power everything from smart devices and electric vehicles to data centers and space shuttles. They have emerged as a key battleground in the U.S.-China tech war, with Washington seeking to choke Beijing’s access to both the chips and the equipment producing them. “Given technological developments and geopolitical context, the government has concluded that it is necessary for national security to expand the existing export control of specific semiconductor manufacturing equipment,” Dutch Trade Minister Liesje Schreinemacher wrote to lawmakers. She said the ban would “prevent Dutch goods from being used for undesirable purposes, such as in military deployment or in weapons of mass destruction”.
EU Commissioner for Trade Valdis Dombrovskis said the Netherlands had reached out to the European Commission over the chip curbs. “The Netherlands has a leading role in this area of technology and we are aware of their recent announcement of new controls related to advanced chips and the tools to manufacture them that have a variety of applications in the military field,” he said. “The Netherlands has been in contact with the Commission on this topic. We are now carefully analyzing the announcement. We always closely follow developments in this area and are in close contact with member states and our allies,” he added.
The U.S. has been piling pressure on allies, including the Netherlands, Japan and South Korea, to follow its lead in curbing exports of chip-making equipment to China. The Dutch government said on March 8 that it would also restrict the export of deep-ultraviolet (DUV) lithography equipment. These are ASML’s second most-advanced machines. It has never exported the most advanced ones – extreme ultraviolet (EUV) – to China. ASML, Europe’s largest tech company by value, sends 18% of its orders to China, the South China Morning Post reports.
Huawei Technologies said it has developed electronic design automation (EDA) tools for chips above 14 nanometers by partnering with domestic companies, marking a crucial breakthrough for China’s semiconductor industry. Dubbed the “cradle” of integrated circuits, EDA is software widely used in the sector and is of great importance to the entire process of designing chips. Xu Zhijun, Rotating Chairman of Huawei, said the company has completed the localization of EDA tools for chips above 14 nm by teaming up with domestic partners and will complete comprehensive verification this year. China has long relied on U.S. companies such as Cadence and Synopsys for EDA tools. The ones for 14 nm chips are considered mid-range products but it still marks a breakthrough, experts said. The progress in EDA tools is part of a broader push by Huawei to develop domestic development tools for hardware, software and chips in the face of the U.S. government’s restrictions. Xu said the company has replaced 78 software tools affected by Washington’s ban on domestically developed tools, which can ensure the continuity of its research and development (R&D) efforts, the China Daily reports.
