The Dutch government revoked ASML’s license to export advanced chip-making equipment to China in January.
Restrictions on Dutch company ASML’s export of advanced chip-making equipment to China and China’s cyberespionage were the focus of Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s state visit to Beijing from March 26 to March 27.
The aggression and military threats posed by the Chinese communist regime in the Indo-Pacific region in recent years have alarmed the United States and its allies. Following the U.S. government’s announcement of restrictions on the export of advanced chips and chip manufacturing equipment to China—to prevent these technologies from being used to strengthen China’s military—Japan and the Netherlands followed suit.
ASML is the largest supplier to the semiconductor industry and the only company in the world that produces extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) equipment to make advanced chips.
The Dutch government revoked ASML’s license to export advanced chip-making equipment to China in January, angering Beijing.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping told Mr. Rutte during the March 27 meeting that “Decoupling and breaking links leads nowhere, and cooperation is the only option.”
After the meeting, Mr. Rutte declined to take questions on whether his government may deny licenses for ASML to export advanced chip-making equipment to China. “When it’s about our semiconductor sector and companies like ASML, when we have to take (export restriction) measures, that they are never aimed at one country specifically, and we always try to make sure the impact is limited,” Mr. Rutte said.
Xi told the visiting Dutch PM on Wednesday that attempts to restrict China’s access to technology will not stop the country from advancing.
Although neither side revealed the outcome of the meeting regarding the ASML export license to China, observers believe that the Dutch will continue to restrict the export of advanced chip-making equipment to China.
Dr. Zhang Tianliang, a U.S.-based China expert, told The Epoch Times that judging from Xi’s response to Mr. Rutte, it’s clear that the CCP didn’t get what they wanted, and the Dutch refused to export the advanced chip-making equipment to China. In other words, Xi was saying that without your chip-making equipment and technology, we can still do well.The meeting summary, publicized by the CCP’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, portrayed Mr. Rutte’s speech in a positive light, emphasizing his remarks on bilateral cooperation and coordination. However, it entirely omitted the issue Mr. Rutte raised regarding the CCP’s cyber espionage activities in the Netherlands.
During the meeting on March 27, Mr. Rutte brought up the recent incident of the CCP’s cyber espionage on the Dutch Ministry of Defense.
“Of course, this has been very openly attributed to China by the Netherlands. It was an attack on the Dutch Ministry of Defence that our MIVD has identified and also attributed to China. So yes, of course, I discussed it,” Mr. Rutte told reporters after the talk with Xi.
MIVD is the military intelligence service of the Netherlands, which operates under the Ministry of Defense. The agency said in February that Chinese regime-backed cyber spies hacked networks used by the Dutch Ministry of Defense.
Defense Minister Kajsa Ollongren said back at the time: “For the first time, the MIVD has chosen to make public a technical report on the working methods of Chinese hackers. It is important to attribute such espionage activities by China. In this way, we increase international resilience against this type of cyber espionage.”
MIVD & AIVD [the country’s general intelligence and security service] emphasized in a report that the incident “does not stand on its own, but is part of a wider trend of Chinese political espionage against the Netherlands and its allies.”
The CCP’s global cyber espionage activities were exposed by the United States, United Kingdom, and New Zealand this week.
The United States and Britain separately accused the CCP of cyber attacks and have sanctioned Chinese entities and individuals. The United States and the United Kingdom also accuse Beijing of conducting extensive cyber espionage operations targeting millions of people, including lawmakers, academics, journalists, and defense contractors.
China denies accusations of state-sponsored hacking from the Western countries, saying the claims are “slandering and smearing China.”
Zhang Ting contributed to this report.