China blames Netherlands for chip supply tensions amid Nexperia standoff

HONG KONG (AP) – China’s Commerce Ministry said Tuesday that the Netherlands’ seizure of Chinese-owned chipmaker Nexperia has caused “chaos” in the semiconductor supply chain that could threaten global auto production.

The Dutch government in late September took control of Nexperia, which is based in the Netherlands but owned by Chinese company Wingtech Technology, citing national security concerns. In response, China blocked shipments of chips from Nexperia’s plant in the southern Chinese city of Dongguan, though it has now allowed those exports to resume.

Nexperia’s Chinese unit said in late October that its Netherlands headquarters had suspended supplies of wafers used to make chips to its factory in China, raising concerns over its ability to deliver finished semiconductors used by many automakers.

“That has created turmoil and chaos in the global semiconductor supply chain,” the Commerce Ministry said in a statement Tuesday. “The Netherlands should bear full responsibility for this.”

The Netherlands also replaced Nexperia’s Chinese CEO Zhang Xuezheng with interim CEO Stefan Tilger.

In late 2024, the U.S. put Wingtech Technology, on its “entity list” that it deems to be acting against the U.S.’s national security interests, subjecting it to export controls. In late September, the U.S. expanded the list to include Wingtech’s subsidiaries, including Nexperia, and the Netherlands then took control of the company.

Global automakers including Ford Motor have warned that China’s export restrictions on Nexperia’s semiconductors could disrupt car manufacturing.

Following U.S. President Donald Trump’s meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in South Korea last week, the White House said China was moving to ease the export ban on Nexperia semiconductors as part of the latest trade truce between Washington and Beijing.

The EU’s trade commissioner Maroš Šefčovič said in a post Monday on X that talks regarding Nexperia and involving China and the Netherlands were progressing, saying that “work continues towards lasting stability”.

The Netherlands said last month it was willing to find a “constructive solution” with Chinese authorities to the Nexperia standoff after its economic affairs minister, Vincent Karremans, spoke by telephone with China’s commerce minister, Wang Wentao.

Nexperia was acquired in 2018 by partially state-owned Wingtech for $3.6 billion.

The Dutch ministry of economic affairs invoked its rarely used Goods Availability Act to effectively seize control of the company on Sept. 30. It said Nexperia’s governance “posed a threat to the continuity and safeguarding on Dutch and European soil of crucial technological knowledge and capabilities”.