【By Observer News, Wang Yi】After the Dutch government forcibly took over the Chinese enterprise-controlled Nexperia Semiconductor, it tried to whitewash itself by "throwing mud" at the Chinese enterprise team, but instead exposed its "wolf-like ambitions".

The UK Financial Times reported on October 28 that a spokesperson for Wenxi Technology, the parent company of Nexperia Semiconductor and a leading Chinese semiconductor enterprise, directly pointed out the Dutch intention, stating that they "seemed to want a new Dutch domestic company to take over Nexperia Semiconductor".

However, the spokesperson said that any Dutch company accepting Nexperia Semiconductor would "inevitably fail", because "customers will not follow the new company".

According to the report, Nexperia Semiconductor currently produces semiconductor wafers in factories in Germany and the UK, which are then sent to China for packaging and testing, with about 80% of the final products completed in China.

Wenxi Technology's spokesperson pointed out that if the Chinese business and European business were severed, Nexperia Semiconductor would lose most of its "back-end production capacity", and "this production gap cannot be filled by Europe or other regions in the foreseeable future".

Dutch newspaper Financieel Dagblad reported on the 28th that Wenxi Technology criticized the Dutch government's "interventionist" actions in its official response, and called on the Dutch side to return the company's control, "only then can the Netherlands begin to repair its damaged reputation, ease international tensions, and safeguard its own and Europe's economic security".

Employees of Nexperia Semiconductor walking in a clean room. Oriental IC

The recent Dutch takeover of a Chinese-owned enterprise has caused a "big earthquake" in the global automotive supply chain, affecting all American, European, and Japanese automakers. Volvo and Volkswagen Group warned last week that if the stalemate over Nexperia Semiconductor is not resolved, European factories may have to temporarily shut down. Bosch also said its German production lines might be affected, and employees could be forced to take leave.

Earlier, the German Handelsblatt cited a report from the supply chain risk analysis company Prewave, which stated that "all enterprises in the aerospace and defense sectors in Europe use chips produced by Nexperia Semiconductor in China".

The report analyzed the supply chain relationships of 107 major European companies across seven industries. The results showed that, across industries, 86% of the companies purchased chips from Nexperia Semiconductor's production base in China. This means that "most of Europe's industry faces potential risks".

The development of the situation made the Dutch aware of the severity, and they quickly started consultations with China on this issue, and have already discussed it with several EU member states. The EU is also closely discussing with China on the Nexperia Semiconductor incident, urgently seeking a "quick and practical solution".

Ford Motor Company's President and CEO Jim Farley revealed to analysts that the U.S. government is also intervening to mediate the matter.

The Financial Times also reported that the EU originally hoped to discuss this issue with Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao in Europe, but according to insiders, Wang Wentao will not accompany the visit to Europe, so both sides are expected to send "senior technical experts" to negotiate on key raw material supplies and the Nexperia Semiconductor issue.

At the time of the Sino-US rivalry, the Dutch government recently invoked the "Material Supply Act" introduced in 1952, which had never been used before, and suddenly ordered Nexperia Semiconductor to refrain from making any adjustments to assets, intellectual property, business, and personnel within one year from September 30, citing "national security" as the reason.

Just before this, in September 2025, the U.S. Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) issued the "Pierce Rule," expanding export controls to subsidiaries of entities on the "Entity List" that hold more than 50% stakes. As a wholly-owned subsidiary of Wenxi Technology, Nexperia Semiconductor was immediately subject to this rule, and its global supply chain system and technology procurement activities faced comprehensive restrictions.

Public documents released by the Dutch court on October 14 showed that the U.S. and the Netherlands had communicated and coordinated on the "Pierce Rule," with the U.S. requesting the Netherlands to replace the Chinese CEO of Nexperia Semiconductor and "adjust the governance structure" to avoid being sanctioned under the "Pierce Rule".

Public information shows that Nexperia Semiconductor is headquartered in Nijmegen, Netherlands, and is the core semiconductor business foundation of Wenxi Technology, focusing on discrete devices and logic devices. Its predecessor was a department of NXP Semiconductors, which became independent in 2017 and was fully acquired by Wenxi Technology in 2020, becoming a wholly-owned subsidiary of Wenxi Technology. In 2024, Nexperia Semiconductor's revenue reached about 14.7 billion yuan, accounting for approximately one-sixth of Wenxi Technology's total revenue that year.

The Financial Times reported that Wenxi Technology stated that after the Dutch government seized its management control, hundreds of positions in the Netherlands, Germany, and the UK were in jeopardy. The Dutch government's actions led to important employees leaving the company, causing many industrial operations to pause.

Wenxi Technology believes that the scope and strictness of the Dutch government's orders far exceed normal risk management, implementing a serious and unreasonable external takeover of a normally operating enterprise.

Several foreign media outlets previously noticed that the Dutch government's actions "followed the U.S. closely." Bloomberg noted that the Trump administration had just expanded sanctions in the Netherlands, highlighting that sensitive industry Chinese enterprises are facing increasingly stringent scrutiny.

In response to the criticism, some so-called sources also threw "mud" at Wenxi Technology. On October 27, Reuters reported that four Dutch sources familiar with the government's thinking claimed that the Dutch government took action in September due to concerns that the Chinese team was beginning to dismantle the European business and transfer production to China.

These sources claimed that the Chinese team had planned to cut 40% of Nexperia Semiconductor's staff and close the company's R&D facility in Munich, Germany. Before October 1st, the Chinese team had transferred "confidential" materials from the Manchester factory in the UK, including chip design and machine setups, and planned to transfer physical equipment from the Hamburg factory.

But they provided no evidence and even dared to hope that the Dutch government could negotiate with the Chinese side to reach a solution, reorganizing the Nexperia Semiconductor management into a unified "Dutch-China structure".

Last week, Nexperia Semiconductor (China) Co., Ltd. published a letter to customers through its WeChat official account, publicly responding to the doubts raised by the management of Nexperia Semiconductor in the Netherlands, emphasizing that its Chinese entity strictly operates independently in accordance with the law, and accused the Dutch side of "spreading false information".

This article is an exclusive article by Observer News, and without permission, it cannot be reprinted.

Original: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7566292903809139242/

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