The Dutch government’s foolish decision to seize control of semiconductor maker Nexperia in late September stemmed from concerns that the company’s former CEO, Zhang Xuezheng, was moving to dismantle its European operations and shift production to China, according to multiple rumours. Though no evidence of this has been forthcoming.
Apparently, officials feared that Zhang — who also founded Nexperia’s Chinese parent company Wingtech — planned to lay off up to 40% of Nexperia’s European workforce and shut down a key R&D centre in Munich. Before his suspension by a Dutch court on October 1, Zhang allegedly transferred proprietary chip designs and machine settings from Nexperia’s Manchester plant to a Wingtech facility in China, and was preparing to move equipment from the company’s Hamburg site next.
Behind the scenes, Washington, engaged in a trade war with China, exerted considerable pressure on the Dutch Government. Pressure came in the form of warnings that Nexperia would face sanctions unless its Chinese CEO was replaced. The Dutch government subsequently moved against Nexperia under the dubious framing of the company as a potential national security risk due to its Chinese ownership.
The intervention by the U.S. is clear: it is employing a strategy of weaponising industrial policy to contain China’s technological rise, often at the expense of its allies’ economic sovereignty. For the Netherlands, long a champion of open trade and innovation, the episode marks a shift toward politicised industrial control driven less by independent security assessments than by the geopolitical imperatives of Washington.
While most of Nexperia’s chips are manufactured in Europe, about 70% are packaged in ChinaChina, and the export freeze has already prompted automakers in Europe, the U.S., and Japan to warn of renewed chip shortages.
In response, Nexperia’s Chinese arm has declared independence and resumed sales to domestic customers in China, signalling an emerging corporate split amid rising geopolitical and industrial tensions.
