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according to reuters on the 23rd local time, dutch minister of economic affairs dirk beyats delivered a speech during his visit to the united states. he emphasized the importance of china as a trading partner and reiterated that dutch semiconductor equipment manufacturer asml must be allowed to "conduct business as freely as possible."

bayatz said his meeting with u.s. undersecretary of commerce don graves was aimed at promoting bilateral trade rather than negotiating export restrictions, which is not within his purview.

the report mentioned that beyats' visit to the united states comes at a time when the united states is seeking to expand semiconductor export restrictions on some chinese computer chip manufacturers. earlier this month, under pressure from the united states, an important ally, the dutch government announced the expansion of export control measures on advanced semiconductor manufacturing equipment, which china's ministry of commerce expressed dissatisfaction with.

according to reports, mainland china is asml's third largest market after taiwan and south korea, accounting for about 20% of its current backlog of orders. a dutch technology media recently pointed out that chinese companies account for about half of asml's customer base. as the technology company with the highest market value in europe, asml will "cause problems" if it weakens its relations with china.

"china is an important trading partner, as are the united states and many other countries in the world, and we also have our own economy to protect and ensure that our companies can operate as freely as possible," beyats said.

"we know that asml is the jewel in the crown of the netherlands, and we are very proud of that, and from our perspective it is important that the company can operate as freely as possible within existing borders. our main discussions were about how to further advance cooperation between our two countries," said beyats.

for some time, the biden administration has targeted china's semiconductor industry, continuously tightening chip export controls on china and increasing pressure on chinese semiconductor companies. at the same time, it has continued to put pressure on the netherlands, japan and other countries to cooperate with it in strengthening export controls on china.

before the netherlands announced the expansion of the scope of control over lithography machines, the new dutch prime minister dick schoolf said that the dutch government would take asml's economic interests into consideration when deciding whether to further tighten semiconductor export rules to china. he stressed that "asml is an extremely important innovative industry for the netherlands and should not be affected under any circumstances, as this would damage asml's global position."

asml has also repeatedly expressed its doubts about the us coercing its allies to strengthen measures to contain china. former asml ceo wenninck publicly opposed restrictions on exports to china, warning that this might eventually prompt china to develop its own technology and pose a competition to asml.

asml's new ceo, françois fouquet, who succeeded wenninck, also told the wall street journal in june this year that "asml today can no longer ignore geopolitics in its operations," and from time to time he expressed his concerns about losing the chinese market.

regarding the netherlands' announcement to expand the scope of control on lithography machines, the chinese ministry of commerce previously issued a statement pointing out that recently, china and the netherlands have conducted multi-level and multi-frequency communication and consultation on the issue of semiconductor export control. on the basis of the 2023 semiconductor export control measures, the netherlands has further expanded the scope of control on lithography machines, and china is dissatisfied with this. in recent years, in order to maintain its global hegemony, the united states has continuously generalized the concept of national security and coerced individual countries to tighten semiconductor and equipment export control measures, which seriously threatens the stability of the global semiconductor industry chain and supply chain and seriously damages the legitimate rights and interests of relevant countries and enterprises. china firmly opposes this.

china emphasized that the netherlands should, based on maintaining international economic and trade rules and the overall situation of china-netherlands economic and trade cooperation, respect market principles and the spirit of contract, avoid relevant measures that hinder the normal cooperation and development of the two countries' semiconductor industries, not abuse export control measures, and effectively safeguard the common interests of chinese and dutch companies and both sides, and maintain the stability of the global semiconductor industry chain and supply chain.

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