China blames Dutch for creating turbulence in chip supply chain

China has blamed the Netherlands for creating “turbulence” in the global semiconductor supply chain following the Dutch decision to seize control of Nexperia at the end of September.

The Chinese trade ministry now wants the Dutch government to leave Nexperia alone and says it hopes that a “constructive solution” can be found for the company, which is based in the Netherlands but owned by a Chinese firm.

A ministry spokesman told the Chinese state paper Global Times that despite China’s repeated reasonable requests during consultations, the Dutch side had “failed to show a constructive attitude or take action, and instead had escalated the global supply chain crisis”.

“The Dutch side should bear full responsibility for the consequences,” the spokesman said.

“The Dutch side has continued to act unilaterally, which will only worsen the negative impact on the global semiconductor supply chain — something neither China nor the global industry wishes to see,” the ministry said.

In September, economic affairs minister Vincent Karremans intervened in Nexperia under a national security law that allows the economic affairs ministry to block or reverse company decisions in exceptional cases. Karremans said the measure was taken to safeguard chip supplies for Dutch and European industries.

Nexperia, based in Nijmegen, was taken over in 2019 by Chinese electronics firm Wingtech. It has a major production site in China, which makes around 50 billion chips a year.

Following the Dutch takeover, China imposed an export ban preventing those chips from leaving the country and cutting off essential supplies to the European car industry. That export ban has since been relaxed.

On Monday, European trade commissioner Maros Sefcovic said on social media that talks about Nexperia with the Netherlands and China were advancing. He said he “welcomed progress on Nexperia, key to restoring a semiconductor supply chain”, and that work “continues towards lasting stability without export control barriers and with a diversified EU ecosystem”.