THE HAGUE — The delegation flying to Beijing this week includes some of the most powerful names in European technology, and the agenda includes the machine that has become the most contested object in the global chip industry. Dutch Trade Minister Reinette Klever is leading a semiconductor industry delegation to China this week, with the export rules governing ASML’s lithography machines and a long-running dispute over the chipmaker Nexperia at the top of the list, according to Reuters and the South China Morning Post.
The timing is deliberate. The Economist published a cover story this week asking whether China has obtained “the world’s most important machine” — ASML’s extreme-ultraviolet lithography tool, the only device capable of producing the most advanced chips. The question frames the visit’s central tension: the Netherlands is home to a company whose products are indispensable to both the American-led effort to constrain China’s chip industry and to China’s own ambition to build one.
ASML is the only company in the world that makes EUV machines, and it also dominates the market for the older DUV technology that China still needs for its more mature chip factories. Under pressure from Washington, the Dutch government has imposed export licensing requirements on advanced lithography sales to China, a policy that has cost ASML revenue and strained a relationship that once made China the company’s largest market. In recent quarters, China has still accounted for a substantial share of ASML’s sales, and Dutch officials have resisted further restrictions that would cut deeper into the business.
The delegation’s size is a message in itself. Dutch semiconductor heavyweights, including suppliers and equipment makers that serve the industry, are traveling with Klever, signaling that the Dutch industry wants to keep selling to China even as the political environment tightens. The Netherlands has tried to position itself as an honest broker: complying with the export-control regime it has agreed to, while avoiding the blanket bans that Washington has at times sought.
The Nexperia dispute adds a second layer of complication. Nexperia, a Dutch-headquartered chipmaker, was acquired by China’s Wingtech in 2018, and the Dutch government has weighed intervention over the company’s Chinese ownership, amid concerns about technology transfer and national security. The dispute has dragged through Dutch courts and ministries for years, and Chinese officials are expected to press the case for leaving the acquisition intact during this week’s meetings.
The visit comes at a delicate moment in EU-China relations. European governments have embraced the language of “de-risking” — maintaining trade ties while protecting sensitive technology — but the definition of sensitive keeps expanding, and the semiconductor industry sits at the frontier. The Netherlands is the test case: it has the technology Washington wants to control, the market China wants to preserve, and a government trying to serve both.
For ASML, the outcome of the visit matters commercially. The company has said it expects export restrictions to keep trimming its sales, but it has also argued that a total cutoff would be self-defeating, pushing China to accelerate its domestic efforts. Chinese chipmakers have been building alternatives, and analysts say the gap between Chinese lithography and ASML’s machines is narrowing from a chasm to a margin — which is why The Economist’s question is being asked at all.
ASML’s position makes every visit to Beijing a balancing act. The company’s machines are essential to advanced chipmaking, its backlog stretches years into the future, and China remains one of its largest markets even after the export restrictions took effect. Dutch officials have said they support the goal of limiting China’s access to cutting-edge technology while resisting measures that would shut down legitimate trade in less advanced equipment — a position that has put The Hague at odds with Washington at various points.
The Nexperia case is the other half of the delegation’s agenda. The company, headquartered in Nijmegen, was acquired by China’s Wingtech in 2018, and it has since become a battleground over technology transfer: Dutch authorities have weighed forcing a sale, American regulators have barred Nexperia’s U.S. subsidiary from certain markets, and the company has argued that it operates under strict safeguards. Chinese officials are expected to press the Dutch government to drop its intervention, and Dutch industry representatives want a resolution that does not damage the country’s reputation as a stable home for foreign investment.
Behind the visit is the steady tightening of U.S. export controls, which have expanded from chips to the equipment that makes them. The Netherlands has agreed to coordinate with Washington on the most sensitive items, but it has also watched the controls shrink ASML’s addressable market and push China to accelerate its domestic efforts. The delegation’s message is that the Netherlands wants to remain a supplier to the world — including the part of the world Washington is trying to contain.
The delegation is unlikely to produce a breakthrough. Export-control policy is set in Washington and The Hague more than in Beijing, and the positions on both sides are entrenched. But the visit serves a purpose: it lets the Netherlands show its industry that it is fighting for its interests, and it lets Beijing see a European government that still wants to do business. In a chip war where every ally matters, the delegation’s presence is the message.
