China asks Netherlands, exporter of world’s top chip-making equipment, to avoid decoupling
- Washington has asked countries with US business interests to avoid selling sensitive tech-related gear to China
- Dutch company ASML continues to ship China equipment that spins out less advanced chips, but says US pressure is not the reason
China’s commerce minister spoke with his Dutch counterpart this week in a bid to dissuade the European country – exporter of the world’s top chip-making equipment – from hi-tech decoupling, which would hurt Chinese efforts to develop their own advanced semiconductors.
Wang Wentao and Geoffrey van Leeuwen, the Netherlands’ acting foreign trade minister, met in Beijing on Wednesday for “in-depth exchanges of views on issues such as exporting lithography machines to China and strengthening cooperation in the semiconductor industry”, Wang’s ministry said in a statement. Lithography is a chipmaking process.
Dutch lithography equipment maker ASML has been restricted from selling its most advanced line of extreme ultraviolet equipment in China for the past five years, but has insisted that the chip-export policy is not the result of pressure from the US.
Tightened export controls on advanced chip-making systems reduced ASML’s sales to China last year by 15 per cent.
But ASML, which holds a monopoly in the world’s most advanced chip-making equipment, still has 13 offices in China. Semiconductors run critically important modern devices such as smartphones, computers and vehicles.
