The Netherlands will jeopardize its good ties with China if the cabinet goes through with its plans to block a billion-dollar export of advanced chip cars to China. Chinese ambassador Tan Jian warns of this in an interview with the FD. “China won’t just gobble this up,” says FD reporter Johan Leupen.
Leupen calls it “quite rare for the Chinese to give an extensive interview on a topic.” So it’s clearly high.’ This is China’s first response to export restrictions announced by Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation Minister Schreinemacher earlier this month.
“An interview like this is read with some attention in the cabinet”
The Netherlands wants to further restrict the sale of ASML and ASMI machines for making advanced chips. With this, the Netherlands wants to prevent Dutch goods “from contributing to an unwanted end use, such as military deployment or weapons of mass destruction”. The United States has been asking for such a measure for some time, China defines the intervention as “bad for China, bad for the Netherlands and for world trade”.
‘China won’t just swallow this’
Negative effect
The restriction will have a negative effect on our relations and economic cooperation, according to the ambassador. “This will not be without consequences. I’m not going to speculate on countermeasures, but China won’t just swallow all of this.’ This is not an empty threat, after Germany, China is the Netherlands’ most important trading partner. In 2021, for example, the Netherlands exported around 14 billion euros to the East.
According to Leupen, the ambassador says it would be a shame for Holland “if it were to isolate itself from the biggest markets in the world”. “The Netherlands trades tens of billions with China every year. They are becoming increasingly dependent on China in terms of trade.” Leupen thinks the interview will be read with due attention within the cabinet.
“This Chinese ambassador is doing this interview completely controlled by Beijing”
To Leupen it seems unlikely that ASML could do without China. “They really, really need it. China is the biggest market and you have to be at the forefront of chips as well. And you do it by selling a lot. So it’s really, really bad, even for ASML, that they’re not allowed to do that anymore.’
Read the full article in the FD here
Source: BNR
Sharon Rock is an author and journalist who writes for 24 News Globe. She has a passion for learning about different cultures and understanding the complexities of the world. With a talent for explaining complex global issues in an accessible and engaging way, Sharon has become a respected voice in the field of world news journalism.
