Netherlands and Japan said to join US in curbing chip technology sent to China
THE Netherlands and Japan, both makers of some of the world’s most advanced equipment for manufacturing semiconductors, agreed last Friday (Jan 27) to join the United States in barring some shipments of their most high-tech machinery to China, people familiar with the agreement said.
The agreement, which followed high-level meetings with US national security officials in Washington, will help expand the reach of sweeping restrictions issued unilaterally by the Biden administration in October on the kinds of semiconductor technology that can be shared with China.
The countries did not publicly announce the agreement, because of its sensitivity, and details remain unclear. But the deal seems likely to put technology industries in the countries on a more even footing, preventing companies in Japan and the Netherlands from rushing in to claim market share in China that has been abandoned by US firms. US companies have said that possibility would put them at a disadvantage.
The White House and the Dutch government declined to comment. The Japanese government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The US imposed strict controls in October on the sale to China of both semiconductors and the machines used to make them, arguing that Beijing could use the technology for military purposes, such as breaking American codes or guiding hypersonic missiles. But well before those restrictions were issued, the US had been pressing the Netherlands and Japan to further limit the advanced technology they export to China.
The October rules also clamped down on certain shipments to China from countries outside the US. Using a novel regulation called the foreign direct product rule, the Biden administration barred companies that use American technology, software or inputs from selling certain advanced semiconductors to China. But these measures applied only to chips, not the machinery used to make them.
Instead, the White House continued to press allies to pass restrictions limiting the sales of semiconductor manufacturing equipment by firms such as Dutch company ASML or Tokyo Electron in Japan. The White House argued that the sale of this advanced machinery to China created the danger that Beijing could one day make its own versions of the advanced products it could no longer buy from the US. NYTIMES
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