Editorial | In case of Nexperia, Dutch cure is proving to be worse than the disease
In seizing control of the Chinese-owned chipmaker, the Dutch government has triggered the kind of supply chain disruptions it apparently wanted to avoid
26 Oct 2025
If
you want to play hardball, better make sure you have the leverage. The
Dutch government clearly doesn’t; now it’s caught in a bind. Its seizure
of Chinese-owned chipmaker Nexperia while ousting its Chinese CEO Zhang
Xuezheng is not only foolhardy, but plainly counterproductive. In
claiming the need to protect national and economic
security by taking control of and ensuring critical supplies of chips
from the firm, the Netherlands has brought about exactly what it tried
to avoid.
The controversial move, however, likely stemmed from American pressure, and must be understood in the context of the larger trade and tech war between Beijing and Washington.
As
certain as day follows night, the Chinese have retaliated. With the
support of parent company Wingtech Technology, Nexperia China has told
its employees to ignore
instructions from the Dutch head office. The Chinese commerce ministry
has imposed an export ban on the Chinese firm and its subcontractors.
Since many of Nexperia’s finished chip products are packaged and shipped
from the Chinese mainland, this means there is now a significant disruption
to the entire supply chain, affecting clients in car manufacturing and
consumer electronics around the world, but especially in Europe. German
carmakers are already sounding the alarm. Nexperia’s clients include
Apple, Tesla and Samsung Electronics.
Dutch officials are now negotiating
with the Chinese side, but clearly not from a position of strength.
When Washington decided to impose either a ban or a forced sale of
TikTok, negotiations went on for almost a year until its recent resolution.
The
Dutch government could hardly have expected its rash decision to seize a
foreign company to have avoided an immediate backlash, though it did
apparently have a legitimate fear that the Chinese owners might relocate
most of the Dutch production to their own country. However, it now has
caused exactly the kind of supply disruption it claimed it was trying to
avoid with its action.
The
reality, though, is that Washington recently extended export
restrictions to many subsidiaries of blacklisted foreign companies such
as Wingtech,
so the Dutch probably thought they had no choice but to take control of
Nexperia if it was to continue to operate unhindered. As it turns out,
the cure is worse than the disease.
The Dutch are now in talks to try to reach a solution with the Chinese side. That’s good, but the initial call has not yielded a resolution. Understandably, China won’t be easily placated. There is also no guarantee the outcome won’t in turn anger the Americans who may demand a say in the matter.
The irony is that the chips in question aren’t even the advanced ones nations fight over, but pretty ordinary products.
Editorials represent the views of the South China Morning Post on the issues of the day.