Netherlands Faces Criticism from Beijing for Restricting Exports of Advanced Chipmaking Machines

September 9, 2024 TruthUSA

The two machines added to the Dutch control list have already been subject to U.S. export control for almost a year.

China’s ruling communist party expressed discontent on Saturday after the Netherlands updated its export control rules to include two more advanced chipmaking machines by the Dutch company ASML.

The photolithography machines, ASML’s TWINSCAN NXT:1970i and 1980i DUV immersion lithography systems, have already been subject to U.S. export control for almost a year.

The Dutch government on Friday added them onto its own export control list, aligning its rules with those unilaterally imposed by the United States last year. The Netherlands, like the United States, cited safety and security risks related to the “current geopolitical context.”

ASML said the update means it will need to apply for export licenses with the Dutch government rather than the U.S. government to export the systems.

Announcing the rules on Friday, the Dutch government said the machines can be used in combination with technologies from other countries to produce semiconductors that “can in turn play an important role in advanced military applications.”

“Uncontrolled export of the equipment therefore has consequences for Dutch security interests,” the department said.

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said Beijing is “dissatisfied” about the expanded restrictions and accused the United States of “coercing” countries to tighten their export controls on advanced semiconductors and related equipment.

The ministry asserted that the United States continuously expanded the concept of national security in order to maintain its global “hegemony.” The rhetoric on “hegemony” is a recurring theme in Beijing’s ongoing attempts to paint its system of governance as an alternative to the international rules-based order led by the liberal-democratic United States and its allies.

The United States began to lobby Japan and the Netherlands during the Trump administration to stop sales of high-end chipmaking equipment to Chinese firms.

The administration also added Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei and semiconductor manufacturer SMIC to the Entity List.

In 2022, the Biden administration signed the CHIPS and Science Act into law, enacting more curbs to restrict the export of advanced chips to China. It also updated the curbs in 2023 to close remaining loopholes.

ASML has an effective monopoly on extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV), a technology that uses extreme ultraviolet to produce transistors for the most advanced microchips. The Dutch company is also leading in the deep ultraviolet immersion lithography (DUV).

Under U.S. pressure, the Dutch government has never allowed ASML to ship its very best EUV tools to China-based customers.

In September 2023, it also began requiring ASML to obtain export licenses if it wanted to sell the company’s most advanced DUV equipment outside the European Union.

The two systems added to the export control list on Friday are in the middle of ASML’s product range.

They were already listed in the U.S. rules announced in October 2023, which restricted the sale of the equipment on the argument that they contain some U.S. parts.

Interest in the 1980i and 1970i machines follows success by China-based firms, such as SMIC, at making advanced chips by running silicon wafers under such DUV tools many times, a process known as “multipatterning.”

At an event in New York on Wednesday, ASML CEO Christophe Fouquet said that China-based chipmakers will be able to produce chips at the 7nm, 5nm, and eventually 3nm technology levels using DUV tools—better than the limits set by Washington.

However, chipmakers using the technique will suffer ever-worse yields, making the goal a demonstration of engineering prowess that is economically unviable, he said.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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