[HN Gopher] Netherlands returns control of Nexperia to Chinese o...
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       Netherlands returns control of Nexperia to Chinese owner
        
       https://archive.ph/lWpwt
        
       Author : boovic
       Score  : 75 points
       Date   : 2025-11-19 18:16 UTC (4 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.bloomberg.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.bloomberg.com)
        
       | lysace wrote:
       | > The order that gave the Netherlands powers to block or revise
       | decisions at Nexperia was dropped as "a show of goodwill"
       | 
       | Why wouldn't CCP/Beijing just be emboldened by this? Why do the
       | dutch feel the need to show goodwill towards CCP?
       | 
       | (Edit: I see a lot of turbulence with this comment. I wonder why
       | people seem to think it's invalid. The Chinese government runs
       | these strategic companies very closely. China is not a democracy.
       | It is a de facto dictatorship run by the CCP, the Chinese
       | Communist Party. Nothing of this really a controversial opinion.)
        
         | RAMJAC wrote:
         | $$$
        
           | lysace wrote:
           | That is almost always the case, but please expand.
        
             | RAMJAC wrote:
             | Maybe I was being a bit flippant, but I don't buy the
             | "goodwill" argument. It's probably went, and by the
             | article, something like this:
             | 
             | China: Great, two can play this game, how about you now
             | lose access to X,Y,Z that may be manufacturing, fabs,
             | investments, rare earths, Chinese markets, etc.
             | 
             | Netherlands: Hmm, that costs more than this company by an
             | order of magnitude. Take it.
             | 
             | This isn't taking into account back channel dealing,
             | conflicts of interest or really anything besides a surface
             | level reading of situation. They had them by the balls.
        
               | tgv wrote:
               | Idk. It's hard to hit The Netherlands in particular,
               | since trade is with the EU as a block, not with
               | individual countries.
        
         | rikafurude21 wrote:
         | "show of goodwill" is politician-speak for capitulation. Taking
         | over Nexperia caused a chip shortage for the german auto
         | industry, which was an unintended consequence that they couldnt
         | handle.
        
           | cowl wrote:
           | a bit tired of auto industry's "just in time" supply
           | managment. they had the same problem when covid closed
           | everything down and now 5 years later they still have not
           | learned that they cant just order "enough for 1-2 months of
           | production" and not more. It's not like the parts change in 2
           | months.
        
         | Barrin92 wrote:
         | >Why do the dutch feel the need to show goodwill towards CCP?
         | 
         | They're not showing goodwill, they're desperate. Why did the
         | Netherlands (read the US) think it's in any position to seize a
         | company from China when the entire auto industry is dependent
         | on Chinese chips?
         | 
         | I can't help but laugh at this, as a European even. China
         | unlike our esteemed continent isn't going to have its
         | businesses commandeered around by Washington, we should take a
         | lesson in self-respect from them. It's also not on us to
         | dictate what system of government they run their country on.
         | Thankfully someone isn't putting up with Washington's crap.
        
       | mainecoder wrote:
       | Well the Chinese are powerful and without the help of the US the
       | Netherlands can't do much. Additionally, the process of moving
       | discrete semiconductor production to China is already underway.
       | Production in Hamburg will stop sometime in late 2029 and the R&D
       | center in Nijmegen, Delft will close done late 2028. The US
       | should have helped the Netherlands but now it is over the Chinese
       | won this battle and fairly easily they did not need to use much
       | of the leverage that they had. The commentary by EU officials
       | shows that they used a top down approach using the EU to pressure
       | the Dutch.
        
         | mainecoder wrote:
         | Additionally I forgot to mention the withholding of shipments
         | from China of the finished product that served as a
         | public(visible) leverage.
        
         | lysace wrote:
         | Perhaps something could have been done via the EU. (No, I know,
         | France/Italy/Spain/Germany are way too obsessed with their
         | exports to PRC.)
         | 
         | Been there/done that - Sweden was unjustly bullied by China and
         | got next to no support from EU. That was a mask off moment for
         | some of us. It seems that for member states like Sweden and the
         | Netherlands, we're supposed to just pay a lot of money in order
         | to get toll-free access to the internal market.
         | 
         | Edit: I would welcome a split into EU North and EU South. Sort
         | of like Aldi North and Aldi South.
         | 
         | EU North: UK (welcome back!), Norway (hello!), Denmark, Sweden,
         | Finland, Netherlands, Estonia.
         | 
         | EU South: The other countries.
        
           | mainecoder wrote:
           | What if I told you that China has more influence over the EU
           | than it has over the Kamer der Staten-Generaal( the Dutch
           | parliament), thus they are using the EU to pressure the
           | dutch. The irony is that European Sovereignty is respected
           | when all the countries of Europe are able to make their own
           | sovereignty respected i.e. it is each of the individual
           | states making their own sovereignty respected that actually
           | elevates the sovereignty of Europe, the EU by pressuring,
           | disregarding and relegating the sovereignty of the member
           | states devalues the collective sovereignty of Europe.
           | Additionally adversaries need only focus on having leverage
           | over EU officials and the EU officials will do their bidding
           | for them.
        
           | MrMorden wrote:
           | The CPC leadership have plenty of personal assets stashed in
           | the EU/UK. It would be easy enough to take them to the
           | cleaners by prosecuting them for violating Chinese AML laws.
        
           | TitaRusell wrote:
           | For the Netherlands the whole world is just a board game for
           | local politics.
           | 
           | Seeing international media overthink this as some kind of
           | deep strategy is mildly amusing.
        
             | lysace wrote:
             | You may also be wrong about that.
        
         | aldrich wrote:
         | Are you sure this is right, and if so would you mind sharing a
         | source for this?
         | 
         | According to the Nexperia 2024 annual report [1], they had just
         | committed to _invest_ in the Hamburg site for their WBG/SiC/GaN
         | production lines. Closure of the fab in Nijmegen was actually
         | reported by NXP[2] not Nexperia - different companies.
         | 
         | [1]
         | https://www.nexperia.com/dam/jcr:fc307e7e-e159-482c-b21b-0f9...
         | [2] https://bits-chips.com/article/closure-of-nxps-nijmegen-
         | fab-...
        
         | goobatrooba wrote:
         | They didn't use the EU, they put pressure on companies in other
         | countries, notably Germany, which then did the rest.
        
       | markus_zhang wrote:
       | Does it need legislation system to pass this or judges can block
       | this somehow? It's pay walled so not sure.
        
       | stpedgwdgfhgdd wrote:
       | Headline should be:
       | 
       | The intervention by the Dutch government at the Nijmegen-based
       | chipmaker Nexperia is being suspended.
        
       | damn3849472 wrote:
       | I must say I feel very vindicated by this. The seizure of control
       | of the company just for appointing a CEO from China (the horror!)
       | never smelled right to me, but everyone in the previous comment
       | section on this tried to rationalize it with "There must be some
       | legitimate national security reason for the Dutch to do this".
       | Clearly not much of a threat for them to cave so quickly!
        
         | t0mas88 wrote:
         | The CEO is still out, the court did that (based on a case
         | brought by other officers of the company). It can't be reversed
         | by the Dutch government.
        
         | BDPW wrote:
         | This wasn't because a Chinese CEO was appointed, it was because
         | of his recent actions moving (apparantly critical) production
         | away from the Netherlands. Where did you get this angle from?
        
       | MangoToupe wrote:
       | They didn't exactly have any leverage
        
       | rzerowan wrote:
       | I think the headline is incorrect , as far as the timeline goes
       | there were TWO separate actions. The first was the Business Court
       | removing the CEO and the Board, the second was the ministrial
       | action to take over Nexperia NL business as part of the wartime
       | measure.
       | 
       | These were all precipitated by the US BIS50+ ruling that
       | threatend to sanction any Chinese subsidiary of any company on
       | the Entity list , which increaed the list from something like
       | 1500 to 30k companies overnight with Nexperia in the mix.
       | 
       | After the recent US-China talks and the suspension of the rule ,
       | the Dutch have in kind made movements to backtrack.
       | 
       | However at this point its only the Ministerial action that has
       | been suspended i.e the SECOND action.
       | 
       | The FIRST action by the Business courts still remains in place ,
       | so the CEO/Board is still outed.
        
       | lenerdenator wrote:
       | The Chinese continue to do state capitalism while the West is
       | afraid to say "turnabout is fair play".
        
       | brazukadev wrote:
       | The Dutch learning we are not in the XX century anymore.
        
         | dragonelite wrote:
         | This is a lesson every western European nation should learn and
         | learn them quickly or else they won't make it.
        
       | constantcrying wrote:
       | Huge mistake going back on this. Europe needs to stop letting
       | itself get pushed around. If the Netherlands isn't willing, then
       | hopefully the EU is.
       | 
       | The EU desperately needs some leadership willing to stop the US
       | and China from continuously pushing it around on every single
       | issue. An independent Chip supply chain is an existential
       | necessity for the EU.
        
       | gethly wrote:
       | FAFO. Id you don't have the ammo, don't play stupid games.
        
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       (page generated 2025-11-19 23:01 UTC)