According to the agreement between the United States and the Netherlands, the Dutch export ban to China was supposed to take full effect in a few weeks, but just recently, the Dutch lithography giant ASML suddenly announced that they had canceled shipments to China. Before this, ASML originally held the license to export three top lithography machines to China, but according to the latest report released by ASML, two of the licenses have been revoked by the Dutch government. The equipment that ASML canceled the shipment is obviously these two top lithography machines.
As for why the Dutch government withdrew AsML's license in advance, the reason is not complicated, and it is still the United States behind the block to prevent normal exchanges and cooperation between China and the Netherlands.
The report quoted people familiar with the matter as saying that not long ago, US officials had called the Dutch government to urge the latter to implement the relevant ban as soon as possible. It is true that the Dutch government did not directly agree at that time, but let the United States talk to AsML, but from the result, as soon as the American officials asked AsML to cancel the plan of exporting some equipment to China, AsML confirmed the news in the report and put it into action. This shows that both the Dutch government and AsML have compromised with the United States.
Of course, some analysts believe that the reason why AsML stated in the report that they had recent discussions with US officials does not rule out that it is implying that the decision to cancel the shipment is involuntarily. Such an "explanation" is mostly to ensure that other businesses in China are not affected. China is expected to account for more than 20 per cent of ASML's global revenues last year. It is true that the new Dutch export ban on China will inevitably affect ASML's cooperation with China to a certain extent, but for ASML, even the remaining business that can be cooperated with, the revenue is also very considerable.
However, this idea is only based on AsML's own interests. China will never accept that the Dutch government and ASML violate the spirit of the contract and harm China's interests, while on the other hand, they want to ensure that their cooperation with China is not affected. If the Dutch side fails to maintain a fair and open international trade environment, it will greatly reduce the enthusiasm of Chinese enterprises for cooperation with the Netherlands. At the same time, it will also undermine the mutual trust between China and the Netherlands to a large extent.
In fact, there is no shortage of opposition within the Netherlands to the new export ban on China. For example, as early as last October, several Dutch parliamentarians publicly questioned the government's decision. They argued that the Netherlands, despite its alliance with the United States, should assert its autonomy rather than accept such an intolerable unilateral rule change.
In addition, there are Dutch lawmakers who are more direct, saying that the United States has gone further when the Netherlands has reached an agreement with the United States, Japan and South Korea on some equipment export licenses, which is completely depriving the Netherlands of strategic autonomy.
As for ASML, its CEO Wennink has also warned that such an approach will only force China to accelerate the development of its own technology. The Netherlands, in cooperation with the United States to restrict China in the field of high-end chip manufacturing equipment, is simply shooting itself in the foot. Because once China breaks through the technological blockade, the Netherlands will be even more unlikely to fill the Chinese market lost due to the relevant ban on China. By then, it is clear that ASML will lose business in China.
Of course, there are reasons for the US to increase pressure on the Netherlands at this time. With Huawei breaking through the US technology blockade, the US side has been very anxious. At the end of last year, U.S. Commerce Secretary Raymond said the United States would invest more money to prevent China from acquiring advanced technology in the field of cutting-edge semiconductors. To this end, Raimondo drew a "red line" for American business leaders, that is, in cooperation with China, the national security interests of the United States must be fully taken into account.
However, as Wennink said, in the short term, such an approach may affect China's development in relevant fields to a certain extent, but the problem is that once a similar ban is indefinitely extended or upgraded, China naturally will not sit still. For decades, from nothing to nothing, China has created countless miracles. The US attempts to hinder China's development through such abuse of export controls or unilateral sanctions, and it will not succeed.
In response to the decision of the Dutch government and AsML, the Chinese Foreign Ministry has made it clear that China will closely follow relevant developments and firmly safeguard its legitimate rights and interests. If the Dutch side fails to earnestly safeguard the common interests of the two countries and companies of the two sides, the Netherlands itself will suffer serious losses due to these harmful practices. As a sovereign country, the Netherlands should not allow normal exchanges and cooperation between China and the Netherlands to be influenced by a third party.
