Dutch Throttle Back ASML Exports, China Squawks.

ASML, a Dutch semiconductor producer, had its license to ship two types of machines that make semiconductors partially revoked. This comes after ASML canceled some of its shipments ahead of tightening Dutch restrictions on exports.

"China opposes the US’s overstretching the national security concept and using all sorts of pretexts to coerce other countries into joining its technological blockade against China," said Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin.  

"Semiconductor is a highly globalized industry. In a deeply integrated world economy, the US’s hegemonic and bullying practices seriously violate international trade rules, undermine the global semiconductor industry structure, impact the security and stability of the international industrial and supply chains, and will surely boomerang."

Last June, Reuters reported that the Dutch government introduced new restrictions on the export of such machines to the PRC. The new rules went into effect in September.

The end of the calendar year saw massive increases in Dutch lithography systems to China. The South China Morning Post reports that

"In total, China imported 42 lithography systems in November for US$816.8 million. Fifteen of those came from Japan, home to industry heavyweights Canon and Nikon. Together, the Netherlands and Japan accounted for nearly the entire amount China spent on such imports last month."

Despite China's purported technological self-reliance, SCMP reports "less than 5 per cent of lithography systems used in Chinese fabs were made in the country as of 2021."

The Netherlands, along with the U.S., have sought to curttail these exports from ASML. The U.S. has jurisdiction over any lithography machine with at least 25 percent U.S.-made technology.  The Netherlands felt pressure from the U.S. and enacted the tighter restrictions last year. The U.S. announced its export controls October 2022.

"The PRC has poured resources into developing supercomputing capabilities and seeks to become a world leader in artificial intelligence by 2030. It is using these capabilities to monitor, track, and surveil their own citizens, and fuel its military modernization," said Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Export Administration Thea D. Rozman Kendler in a press release at the time the U.S. controls were announced.