He Yadong, spokesperson for China's Ministry of Commerce, said on Thursday 16 July that Beijing and The Hague should create the conditions for the companies involved to settle the dispute over Nexperia through consultation, and should protect the stability of semiconductor supply chains.1 Nexperia is a Dutch-based chipmaker owned by the Chinese group Wingtech. The statement followed a Dutch ministerial visit to Beijing on 7 July.
The dispute began with the Dutch government's intervention under the 1952 Goods Availability Act and Beijing's subsequent export block on output from its Dongguan assembly plant, which interrupted supply of basic automotive chips to carmakers across Europe. The shape of the problem is worth holding on to: European manufacturers spent weeks waiting on parts made by a Dutch-based firm and packaged in southern China. Legal control sat in Europe; the physical bottleneck did not.
That is the same gap Europe's chip strategy has been trying to close. Brussels measured its own share of global chip production at 9 per cent against a 20 per cent target last month, while committing to at least $40bn of American artificial intelligence (AI) chips under the Pax Silica arrangement in June. A conciliatory statement from the Chinese Commerce Ministry is welcome for the carmakers waiting on parts, and changes nothing about where the packaging capacity physically sits.
