Netherlands returns control of Nexperia to Chinese owner
Mood
controversial
Sentiment
negative
Category
business
Key topics
Semiconductor Industry
China-Netherlands Relations
National Security
The Netherlands has returned control of Nexperia, a chipmaker, to its Chinese owner, sparking debate about the country's willingness to appease China and concerns about national security.
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Why wouldn't CCP/Beijing just be emboldened by this? Why do the dutch feel the need to show goodwill towards CCP?
(Edit: I see a lot of turbulence with this comment. I wonder why people seem to think it's invalid. The Chinese government runs these strategic companies very closely. China is not a democracy. It is a de facto dictatorship run by the CCP, the Chinese Communist Party. Nothing of this really a controversial opinion.)
They're not showing goodwill, they're desperate. Why did the Netherlands (read the US) think it's in any position to seize a company from China when the entire auto industry is dependent on Chinese chips?
I can't help but laugh at this, as a European even. China unlike our esteemed continent isn't going to have its businesses commandeered around by Washington, we should take a lesson in self-respect from them. It's also not on us to dictate what system of government they run their country on. Thankfully someone isn't putting up with Washington's crap.
Been there/done that - Sweden was unjustly bullied by China and got next to no support from EU. That was a mask off moment for some of us. It seems that for member states like Sweden and the Netherlands, we're supposed to just pay a lot of money in order to get toll-free access to the internal market.
Edit: I would welcome a split into EU North and EU South. Sort of like Aldi North and Aldi South.
EU North: UK (welcome back!), Norway (hello!), Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Netherlands, Estonia.
EU South: The other countries.
Seeing international media overthink this as some kind of deep strategy is mildly amusing.
According to the Nexperia 2024 annual report [1], they had just committed to _invest_ in the Hamburg site for their WBG/SiC/GaN production lines. Closure of the fab in Nijmegen was actually reported by NXP[2] not Nexperia - different companies.
[1] https://www.nexperia.com/dam/jcr:fc307e7e-e159-482c-b21b-0f9... [2] https://bits-chips.com/article/closure-of-nxps-nijmegen-fab-...
The EU desperately needs some leadership willing to stop the US and China from continuously pushing it around on every single issue. An independent Chip supply chain is an existential necessity for the EU.
The intervention by the Dutch government at the Nijmegen-based chipmaker Nexperia is being suspended.
These were all precipitated by the US BIS50+ ruling that threatend to sanction any Chinese subsidiary of any company on the Entity list , which increaed the list from something like 1500 to 30k companies overnight with Nexperia in the mix.
After the recent US-China talks and the suspension of the rule , the Dutch have in kind made movements to backtrack.
However at this point its only the Ministerial action that has been suspended i.e the SECOND action.
The FIRST action by the Business courts still remains in place , so the CEO/Board is still outed.
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