The Chinese government has expressed “extreme disappointment” with the Dutch minister at the heart of a row over chip supply to the car industry.
A spokesperson for the ministry of commerce was responding to a Guardian interview with Vincent Karremans on Thursday in which the politician described the standoff between China and the European Union as a “wake-up call” for western leaders.
The spokesperson said: “China has noted the recent remarks made by Dutch minister of economic affairs Karremans in media interviews. China expresses extreme disappointment and strong dissatisfaction with such remarks that confuse right and wrong, distort facts and persist in a single-minded course.
“The profound lesson this semiconductor supply chain crisis has taught the world is that administrative measures should not be used to improperly interfere with corporate operations.”
Beijing imposed a worldwide ban on exports of chips from Nexperia at the start of October, almost bringing the global car industry to a halt.
Its drastic action followed a decision by the Dutch government to take supervisory control of the Chinese-owned company at the end of September citing economic security issues.
In the interview, Karremans said the Dutch government had received intelligence that the Chinese CEO was “moving away intellectual property rights, they were firing people and they were looking to relocate production to China” from its subsidiary factory in Hamburg, Germany.
Nexperia is a subsidiary of Wingtech Technology, a Shanghai-listed company, which bought the Dutch chip maker in 2018.
Karremans said he had no regrets about the steps his government took, saying on the basis of the information he had now, he would do it all over again.
But his actions have infuriated China, which instead of entering a bilateral battle on behalf of Wingtech, ordered a global ban on exports of Nexperia chips which are all finished in China.
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The spokesperson for the Chinese ministry described a court decision to suspend the Chinese boss of Nexperia as “erroneous” and blamed the export ban directly on the Dutch.
“This unwise and impulsive act, which violates the spirit of contract, is the root cause of the turmoil and chaos in the global semiconductor supply chain,” it said.
Nexperia in China gave a similarly angry verdict on the interview in a letter to employees at its Netherlands-based sister company. In a letter seen by the South China Morning Post, Nexperia in China critcised Dutch management for allegedly “maliciously sabotaging Nexperia China’s production and operations”.
A delegation from the Netherlands is travelling to Beijing next week in an effort to find a long-term resolution to the row, with Karremans expected to travel there next month on a pre-scheduled trade trip.
