China blames Netherlands for chip supply tensions amid Nexperia standoff

The Netherlands cited national security concerns in taking control of the company, which is owned by the Chinese company Wingtech Technology.

It also replaced Nexperia's Chinese CEO Zhang Xuezheng with interim CEO Stefan Tilger.

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 ministry accused the Netherlands of failing to help resolve the problem, saying it was "further escalating the semiconductor supply chain crisis.”

In late 2024, the US put Wingtech Technology, on its “entity list” that it deemed to be acting against the US’s national security interests, subjecting it to export controls.

In late September, the US 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 US 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 the Dutch government and China were closely coordinating and in “constructive engagement” regarding Nexperia.

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 September 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”.