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The Dutch government said on Nov. 19 that it suspended the intervention in Nexperia, handing back control of the Netherlands-based chipmaker to its Chinese owner.
Dutch Economy Minister Vincent Karremans announced the reversal in a
statement on X, saying that suspending the order invoked under the Cold War-era Goods Availability Act regarding Nexperia represents “a show of goodwill.”
“We will continue to engage in constructive dialogue with the Chinese authorities in the period ahead,” Karremans said.
Karremans
announced on Sept. 30 that the Dutch state would take control of Nexperia, freezing its assets and replacing its Chinese executives. The government
said the unprecedented step was necessary to prevent an “acute and serious threat to the continuity of the company and thus the preservation of critical technological knowledge, as well as production and development capacities in the Netherlands and Europe.”
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Though headquartered in the Netherlands, Nexperia is owned by Wingtech Technology, a Chinese state-controlled telecom equipment manufacturer that was
added to Washington’s trade blacklist in December 2024.
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On Sept. 29, the U.S. Bureau of Industry and Security issued a
rule that any entity that is more than 50 percent owned by an entity on Washington’s trade blacklist would itself be subject to trade restrictions. This rule change meant that Nexperia would be subject to trade restrictions.
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In retaliation, the Chinese regime restricted Nexperia from shipping certain finished products on Oct. 4, the company
said on Oct. 14, citing an export control notice it received from China’s commerce ministry.
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With up to
80 percent of Nexperia’s final packaging and assembly located in mainland China, the regime’s order sparked concerns about
disruptions in the supply chain critical to U.S. and European automakers.
Nexperia is one of the world’s largest producers of simple computer chips, including diodes and transistors. Although they are not cutting-edge, these chips are essential for Europe’s automotive and industrial supply chains.
Following a summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Oct. 30 in South Korea, Beijing agreed to “appropriate measures to ensure the resumption of trade from Nexperia’s facilities in China, allowing production of critical legacy chips to flow to the rest of the world,” the White House
said on Nov. 1.
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The Chinese regime later indicated it would ease some pressures on Nexperia. A spokesperson for the regime’s commerce ministry said on Nov. 9 that
exemptions had been granted for Nexperia’s exports for civilian use.
While Karremans welcomed Beijing’s decisions to loosen the licensing conditions on Nexperia’s legacy semiconductors, he said the government will continue to monitor the situation “to verify the resumption of tangible supplies to Europe and the rest of the world and to ascertain if and when trade from Nexperia’s facilities in China is fully resumed,” according to a Nov. 13
statement.
He added that a senior official delegation from his ministry is set to travel to Beijing next week to “find a mutually agreeable solution.”
Despite “positive steps” such as Beijing’s recent move to allow limited exports from Nexperia’s factories and a one-year U.S. suspension of a key export rule, the company has said its Chinese operations have gone rogue.
“Given the missing transparency and oversight over the manufacturing processes, we cannot guarantee the intellectual property, technology, authenticity, and quality standards for products delivered from the Nexperia facility in China as of October 13,” the company
said in a Nov. 5 statement.
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Tom Ozimek and Guy Birchall contributed to this report.
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Udumbara
