Preliminary

Recently, relations between China and the Netherlands have suddenly become tense. The reason is the Netherlands '"open robbery" against overseas branches of China semiconductor giants.

On October 12, a news from the Netherlands shocked the Chinese business community: The Netherlands suspended all management positions of Zhang Schultz in Anselm Semiconductor on the basis of the alleged "serious governing defects", transferred shares to a third party for temporary custody, and controlled the decision-making power of the company in major matters by appointing independent foreign directors.

This seemingly judicial intervention operation is essentially to deprive Wingtech Technology of its control over its wholly-owned subsidiary Nexperia, involving frozen assets of up to 14.7 billion yuan.

Just on the third day of the Dutch completion of this "documentary robbery", the export ban of the Chinese Ministry of Commerce responded to the ground, directly cut off the Anselm Semiconductor chip export channel from the territory of China, and a game in the field of semiconductors suddenly escalated.

14.7 billion assets have been “legally looted”

The operation of the Dutch government can be called "precise cooperation". The three rulings announced on October 12th pointed to the core of corporate control step by step. The suspension of Zhang Xuezheng's post means that the Chinese side loses the right to speak in management, the equity custody makes the Chinese shareholders lose the right to control assets, and the appointment of foreign directors completely overhead the Chinese side's decision-making power.

In a statement issued on the night of the day, Zhou Xiaoping condemned the act with anger and made it clear that he would not surrender at all, while the European Union's Chinese Chamber of Commerce directly described it as "modern economic robbery driven by geopolitical calculations."

The Dutch government's ruling not only ruined Wentai Technology's investment, but also broke the foundation of commercial trust that the global semiconductor industry has long relied on.

Even if a company operates fully compliantly, it may be deprived of assets due to geopolitical factors, a risk that will cool the back of all multinational investors.

Faced with the sudden attack of the Netherlands, China's response was both quick and accurate.

Combined punch by China.

On October 14, the China Semiconductor Industry Association took the lead in speaking out and clearly opposed this behavior carried out by the Netherlands in its statement.

This statement appears to be the statement of the industry association, which in practice conveys the unified position of the Chinese industrial community, laying the basis for the public opinion for subsequent counter-repression.

The real heavy blow is yet to come. According to Bloomberg News, China's Ministry of Commerce has officially issued an announcement to implement export controls on Nexperia.

The ban hit precisely the "seven inches" of Anselm Semiconductor, whose global terminal product production capacity is 80 percent concentrated in mainland China, once China loses export rights to its production capacity, this world's top mature chip supplier will instantly fall into the trouble of "capacity without market".

China’s counter-logic hints that the Dutch government claims to intervene companies to “guarantee supply chain security”, but China’s export ban proves that the global semiconductor supply chain has long been deeply bound, and any unilateral sanctions will trigger a chain reaction.

As an important supplier of global automotive chips, many European automakers are the company's core customers.

Now that China has cut off export channels, the first to be affected are European car companies that rely on these chips. The so-called "security guarantee" of the Dutch government has turned into "risk manufacturing".

In addition, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded by strengthening its position at the national level. The spokesperson made it clear that relevant countries should earnestly abide by market principles and not politicize economic and trade issues. China is unswervingly determined to safeguard its legitimate rights and interests.

From corporate statements to industry solidarity, to government bans and diplomatic statements, China has completed a multi-level, stereotyped response in just three days, showing a firm attitude to safeguard the rights and interests of enterprises, but alsoining restraint and accuracy in its actions.

The Anchor Semiconductor incident is by no means an isolated case, in fact, under the leadership of the United States, the semiconductor field "disconnect" plan is a vivid shade, reflecting its illusory attempt to implement unilateral control and undermine international cooperation in the field.

Behind the scenes and Europe's dilemma

As early as 2023, Dutch company Asmai was forced to suspend providing advanced chip manufacturing equipment to China under pressure from the United States. Today's encounter with Anshi Semiconductor is just a new attempt by the United States to tie European technology companies to the chariot.

The Netherlands' choice is obviously to succumb to pressure, but this choice is blowing back on itself. As the core country of global semiconductor equipment manufacturing, the Netherlands has long relied on an open global industrial chain.

Today, the Dutch government’s open use of administrative force to interfere with corporate equity has not only damaged the confidence of Chinese investors, but also caused other countries to question the Dutch business environment.

When "national security" can be the pretext for deprivation of assets, who dares to invest large amounts in the Netherlands?

Even more embarrassing is the division within the European Union, where there are obvious differences between the interests of major automakers such as Germany and France and the interests of the Netherlands: German Volkswagen, BMW and other automakers need to import a large number of chips from China every year, and also rely on the Chinese market sales performance.

China's ban on the export of ANSI semiconductors directly affects the chip supply of these car companies, which will inevitably trigger dissatisfaction in Germany and other countries.

The European Union’s Chinese Chamber of Commerce’s condemnation also reflects, to some extent, the opposition within Europe to this “geopolitical abduction.”

The "related party rule" of the United States is essentially a tool of "technological hegemony". By expanding the scope of control to subsidiaries, the United States is trying to completely cut off the ties between Chinese companies and global advanced technologies.

But this approach is destroying the collaborative foundation of the global semiconductor industry: the semiconductor industry, from design, manufacturing to packaging testing, needs to spread across multiple countries and regions, and any rupture of a link can lead to the entire industrial chain being paralyzed.

70% of Anshi Semiconductor's production capacity is in China, which just shows that this division of labor is the result of market choice and is by no means something that can be forcibly separated by administrative forces.

China's ability to quickly introduce precise countermeasures stems from its key position in the semiconductor industry chain.

The confidence behind China's ban

China is not only the world's largest semiconductor consumer market, but also an important manufacturing base, with complete semiconductor manufacturing industrial chain supporting capabilities, which is exactly where China's counterproduction is.

Unlike advanced processing chips that require cutting-edge technology, mature chips widely used in automotive, consumer electronics and other fields rely more on stable production capacity and cost control, and China has these advantages.

Anse Semiconductor will put 70% of its production capacity in China, which is in view of the industrial support and market potential here.

Now China’s ban on its exports is equivalent to trapping the company’s “sales throat” and instantly breaking down its global supply chain.

China is the world's largest automobile market and consumer electronics market, and no semiconductor company can ignore the existence of this market.

Even if the Dutch government wants to support other companies to replace Nexperia's production capacity, it will take several years and huge investments, and distant water cannot put out near fires.

This kind of "hard power" at the market level is far more convincing than pure administrative intervention.

The chain reaction triggered by the Anchor Semiconductor incident has only just begun, for enterprises, Zhou Tai Technology has launched legal and diplomatic ways to defend power, but the Dutch court decision has a clear political color, the judicial path may face many variables.

Upgrading game and the future.

Anshi Semiconductor's employees are caught in a dilemma: on the one hand, the survival pressure caused by stagnant corporate operations, and on the other hand, the uncertainty caused by geopolitics.

It is even more alarming that the Dutch government’s approach breaks the basic business principle of “private property inviolability,” and if the logic of “politics over commerce” becomes normal, multinationals will be forced to re-evaluate the global layout, leading the industry chain toward “fragmentation.”

This will not only boost production costs, but also reduce innovation efficiency, and the advancement of the semiconductor industry depends on open technology exchange and cooperation.

If the Dutch government does not revoke the relevant ruling, China may expand the scope of export controls, and the United States may continue to pressure the EU to introduce a stricter semiconductor policy against China.

But in the long run, cooperation is still the only right choice, China has the world's largest semiconductor market and complete manufacturing capacity, Europe has advanced equipment and technology, and the complementarity of both is far greater than competitiveness.

Behind the fierce struggle for 14.7 billion assets, Reality hides a great game of control over the global semiconductor industry chain.

The short-term operations of the Netherlands may satisfy the political demands of the United States, but in the long run, this market law-breaking practice will eventually reflect itself.

When the world's largest market and the most complete manufacturing system join hands to defend their rights and interests, any attempt to split the industrial chain will eventually end in failure.

The final end of this game may make more countries realize that win-win cooperation is the only way out for the semiconductor industry.

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