This is an extraordinarily dumb thing for Europe to do: the Dutch government is quite literally stealing a leading Chinese semiconductors company, at least its international operations.
https://x.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1977563638904021199
This is an extraordinarily dumb thing for Europe to do: the Dutch government is quite literally stealing a leading Chinese semiconductors company, at least its international operations.
They're probably acting in coordination with Washington since it was simultaneous to Trump's new "50% rule" that added all subsidiaries of companies on the U.S. "Entity List" to the list (which is the case of Wingtech Technology, Nexperia's Chinese parent company).
I'm not even exaggerating on the "stealing" bit: they suspended the Chinese CEO from his position, appointed a non-Chinese director on the board with decisive voting rights and expropriated the company's shares by placing them under management by a third-party trustee.
All under a law called the "Goods Availability Act" (government.nl/latest/news/20), which is an emergency wartime legislation designed for things like the requisition of bread or fuel during a foreign invasion. It makes absolutely zero sense in this case: last I checked Holland wasn't being invaded, and Nexperia is operating normally, with chips flowing to European customers exactly as they always have.
It's so dumb in so many respects.
First of all this obviously kills the investment climate in Europe: go convince any non-Western country to invest in Europe now, when they know their investment can be seized from one day to the next on the flimsiest of pretexts.
It invites retaliation from China, which is almost systematic. I wouldn't want to be a Dutch company with Chinese operations right now...
It undermines Europe's own semiconductor strategy. Nexperia is one of the all-too-rare successful EU semiconductor companies, headquartered in Holland with 14,000 employees worldwide. Destabilizing it isn't exactly smart...
Last but not least, it sends yet again the message of a EU with zero strategic autonomy since, again, this was simultaneous with new US rules that affected Nexperia.
Trump's new "50% rule" could have actually been an opportunity for the EU to assert its strategic autonomy by putting a line in the sand and issue a statement like this:
"Nexperia is a European company subject to European law. It operates under Dutch jurisdiction, employs 14,000 people globally with major operations in Europe, and serves critical European industries.
The United States does not get to unilaterally determine what a Dutch company can do simply because it dislikes the nationality of the shareholders.
We ask that Wingtech provide binding commitments: R&D investment continues, European jobs are protected, and all operations comply with EU law. In exchange, we will shield Nexperia from extraterritorial US sanctions that violate our sovereignty."
Boom: if it had done that, Europe would have positioned itself as a genuine independent player, demonstrated that European property rights are real and that Europe is committed to protecting foreign assets, even from the U.S.
But no, the message it sent instead is: "Sorry guys but if Washington decides it doesn't like your nationality, we'll seize your assets" 
posted by Satish Sharma at
06:38
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