China seeks chip talks with Netherlands after Nexperia row

China said it wants to settle trade and economic issues with the Netherlands through dialog, after Commerce Minister Wang Wentao met the Dutch trade minister on the sidelines of a World Trade Organization meeting in Cameroon.

China’s commerce ministry said the pair also discussed semiconductor cooperation and Dutch chipmaker Nexperia.

Ties have been strained since Dutch authorities seized chipmaker Nexperia from its Chinese owner Wingtech in October 2025.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his Dutch counterpart that Beijing had noted what he called “positive signals” from the Netherlands’ new government on relations with China.

🔗 Source: Reuters

🧠 Food for thought

Implications, context, and why it matters.

The Dutch state intervention in Nexperia followed governance and technology-transfer concerns

The Dutch government invoked the Goods Availability Act (Wet beschikbaarheid goederen), a Cold War-era emergency law, after citing governance failures and risks to technological knowledge plus production capacity in the Netherlands and Europe. Dutch courts also imposed emergency governance measures and removed Nexperia’s Chinese CEO, Zhang Xuezheng, amid allegations he planned to shift production, intellectual property, and financial resources to Wingtech, Nexperia’s China-based parent company, in China 1, 2.
Plans reportedly aimed to cut up to 40% of European staff, close the Munich research and development (R&D) center, and move equipment from Hamburg to China 3.
U.S. export controls added pressure. The U.S. Department of Commerce put Wingtech on the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) Entity List in December 2024. In September 2025, BIS adopted an “Affiliates Rule” that extended restrictions to majority-owned subsidiaries such as Nexperia, which increased scrutiny of separation steps and oversight 2.

Nexperia’s crisis exposed Europe’s vulnerability in a split supply chain

The Dutch intervention prompted Chinese export restrictions aimed at Nexperia’s operations in China, which tightened supply for downstream sectors including automotive 4.
Europe hosts much of Nexperia’s wafer fabrication and its corporate base, yet a large share of back-end assembly and testing sits in China. Reporting put the Dongguan facility at roughly 80% of final product capacity 3.
Beijing’s export halt disrupted European automakers that rely on Nexperia’s legacy chips. One estimate puts Nexperia at about 40% of the European automotive industry’s needs 1.
Nexperia’s China unit moved to lock in and expand domestic wafer sourcing, which could pull more of the supply chain toward China 3.