A transnational game around the chip is taking place, and the Dutch government, on the basis of "national security", has frozen global assets worth up to 14.7 billion yuan of Anselm Semiconductor under China's Zhou Tai Technology, and is trying to dismiss the Chinese CEO.
But the events soon saw a dramatic reversal: 80% of the production capacity of the Anselm Semiconductor was located in China, without China's packaging link, the Netherlands took over just one empty shell.
China subsequently imposed export controls on Xi Jinping, and the global automotive chip supply chain responded.This seemingly ordinary commercial dispute instantly escalated into a storm of technology games between China and the US and Europe.
On September 30, 2025, the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy issued a ministerial order to freeze the assets, intellectual property, business and personnel adjustments of its 30 global entities for a period of one year.
The Dutch government claims that this is the first time that the Commodity Supply Law has been implemented, on the grounds that "the continuity and security of key technical knowledge and capabilities in the Netherlands and Europe are threatened".
Just the day after the ministerial order was issued, on October 1, three foreign executives of Anselm Semiconductor – Chief Justice Officer, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer – jointly submitted an emergency application to the Dutch court to request the suspension of the position of Chinese-delegated CEO Zhang Sheng.
On October 7, the Amsterdam Court of Appeal enterprise court promptly ruled to suspend Zhang’s board of directors, appoint a foreign board with decisive voting rights, and forcibly deposit all of the shares held by Thai Technologies to a third party. This combination of “government orders – executive responses – court rulings” is completed in a week, and the speed is striking.
Analysis by the British Financial Times and Bloomberg indicates that the Dutch action is under US pressure. Court documents revealed by Reuters showed that U.S. officials in a meeting with the Dutch Foreign Ministry in June made it clear that the company would have to replace its Chinese CEO, Zhang Sheng, if he wanted to be exempted from the U.S. “entity list.”
In December 2024, Anselm Semiconductor's parent company, Zhongtai Technology, was included in the U.S. entity list; on September 29, 2025, the U.S. Department of Commerce further introduced the "50% penetration rule", which will extend the scope of the restriction to subsidiaries with more than 50% stake in the sanctioned enterprises, Anselm Semiconductor directly affected.
On October 12th, Zhou Tai Technologies issued a statement condemning the Dutch government’s excessive intervention on the grounds of unnecessary “national security”, pointing out that this was a discriminatory treatment based on geopolitical bias.
The statement stressed that the actions of the individual foreign management are highly linked to the Dutch government’s directives and are essentially “in the name of compliance and the practice of seizure of power.”
China has also taken rapid countermeasures. On October 4, China's Ministry of Commerce issued an announcement to implement export controls on Nexperia's subsidiaries and subcontractors in China, prohibiting them from exporting specific finished components and components.
China Semiconductor Industry Association issued a statement, firmly supporting Zhou Tai technology to safeguard its rights in accordance with the law, and opposing the abuse of the concept of "national security" to discriminate against Chinese enterprises. foreign ministry spokesman Lin剑 also said that China has consistently opposed the generalization of the concept of national security, and upholds its legitimate and legitimate rights and interests.
Anselm Semiconductor is not an ordinary company, it is the third largest enterprise in the global power separator market, products are widely used in the automotive electronics field, customers include global giants such as Tesla, BMW, Bosch.
The key is that the company, headquartered in the Netherlands, has approximately 80 percent of its final product shipments in mainland China to complete packaging testing, and in particular the plant in Dongguan, Guangdong, is responsible for 70 percent of the global packaging capacity.
In terms of revenue structure, China's market share in the first half of 2025 is as high as 48%.This means that leaving China's production capacity and market, Anselm Semiconductor's global business will be difficult to operate.
China's export control measures are immediately visible.Since October 10, Anselm semiconductor-related products have been purchased and offered on the market.
The European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) issued a document expressing deep concern, saying that if the chip supply interruption problem cannot be resolved immediately, the European automobile manufacturing industry may be seriously affected. Global car companies began to urgently look for alternatives, and the market price of Nexperia chips was fired to 2 to 3 times that of usual days.
The incident spread further within the company.On October 16, employees of Anselm China District received a notification that the Dutch headquarters would no longer pay salaries to domestic employees in China, and the company's system rights were completely interrupted.
On October 19, Anselm China through social media published the "Anselm China to all employees" article, clearly stating that all employees should continue to implement the work instructions of Anselm domestic companies, salary benefits will be issued by Anselm domestic companies, which is interpreted by the outside world as Anselm China launched independent operations. In this regard, Nexperia's Dutch headquarters denied it, saying that the relevant allegations were "inconsistent with the facts and misleading."
The attitude of Dutch Minister of Economic Affairs Kalemans then loosened. On October 20th, he publicly stated that he would meet with Chinese officials within a few days to discuss how to resolve the deadlock.
He acknowledged that Chinese automotive companies also need Anselm Semiconductor chips, and that the two sides have a “interdependence relationship.”
According to the Zhou Tai Technology announcement, Anselm Semiconductor has more than 25,000 customers worldwide, and its vehicle-grade power devices are critical to the automotive industry.
Industry sources pointed out that the standard devices such as the vehicle standard MOSFET, diode and other standard devices supplied by ANSI semiconductors, although the technological substitution is strong, the certification and production capacity improvement of new suppliers will take months, and the existing inventory can usually only last a few weeks.
In version 2.0 of the "China Automotive Chip Alliance Whitelist" released by the China Automotive Chip Alliance, Nexperia has 196 on-board application cases, ranking second.
A head of the supply chain of Chinese automobile companies revealed that they had begun emergency preparation two weeks ago, and priority was emergency reserve goods.In the meantime, domestic power device manufacturers such as Slang Micro, Yangtze Technology and other vehicle standard product orders increased sharply in the short term.
Alexander Ferreira Gomez, a researcher at the Netherlands Institute of International Relations, once warned Bloomberg that China is likely to take countermeasures, which may target the wider European semiconductor industry, not just Dutch companies operating in China.
China’s EU Chamber of Commerce condemned the Dutch government’s actions as “modern economic robbery driven by geopolitical calculation” and urged the Netherlands to immediately withdraw the wrong decision.