‘China won’t just swallow this’: Beijing envoy on Netherlands blocking export of high-end semiconductor equipment

New Delhi: Chinese ambassador to the Netherlands Tan Jian has warned the country of retaliation for chip curbs.

According to a report in the South China Morning Post, “The Netherlands will face consequences if it blocks the export of high-end semiconductor equipment to China, Beijing’s envoy to the country has warned.”

“This will not be without consequences. I’m not going to speculate on countermeasures, but China won’t just swallow this,” ambassador Tan Jian said.

The Dutch firm ASML is the world’s leading producer of photolithography machines crucial to making advanced microchips.

China criticizes Dutch plan to curb access to chip tools

China’s government has criticized the Netherlands for joining Washington in blocking Chinese access to technology to manufacture advanced processor chips on security and human rights grounds.

Washington in October blocked Chinese access to U.S. tools to make advanced chips that it said might be used in weapons or in equipment for the ruling Communist Party’s surveillance apparatus. The Biden administration is lobbying European and Asian allies to tighten their own controls.

A Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman complained that “an individual country,” a reference to the United States, was trying to “safeguard its own hegemony” by abusing national security as an excuse to “deprive China of its right to development.”

“We firmly oppose the Netherlands’s interference and restriction with administrative means of normal economic and trade exchanges between Chinese and Dutch enterprises,” said the spokeswoman, Mao Ning. “We have made complaints to the Dutch side.”

China barred from receiving ASML’s most advanced machines since 2019

The Dutch government has prohibited ASML from exporting its most advanced machines to China since 2019, but the company is allowed to supply lower-quality systems.

Chinese manufacturers can produce low-end chips used in autos and most consumer electronics but not those used in smartphones, servers and other high-end products.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and U.S. President Joe Biden held talks in January on ASML’s chip machines.

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