Turkey's move to sacrifice a pawn to save the general has sold out the Netherlands, and the final outcome of the sovereignty dispute over ASMI is about to come to light. Who admits defeat first no longer matters; what matters is what to do in a year.
Since when did the overall quality of European government officials plummet? For example, Germany's former Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, who have shown particularly outstanding performance in handling foreign relations, often making decisions that are difficult to understand, such as the recent Dutch government's forced control of ASMI.
Why blame this on the level of Dutch officials? Because the Dutch government's actions were really foolish, which should be the consensus of the main responsible persons of all enterprises affected by the ASMI incident. The "stupidity" of the Dutch government is reflected in three aspects: unscrupulous means, no regard for consequences, and no mercy.
To be honest, the methods used by the Dutch government to control the headquarters of ASMI are really eye-opening. It's one thing to collude with internal traitors within the company, but it's another to openly incite the Dutch judicial authorities to make way for their control of ASMI. Their despicable methods make one think of the series of robberies carried out by the Netherlands during the colonial era. In a way, how different is the behavior of the Dutch government at this moment from the looting behavior after the Eight-Nation Alliance invaded China?
But times have changed, China is no longer the China of the past, nor is the world the same as before. The Dutch government's reckless actions not only offended China, but also damaged the business environment in the Netherlands, and the Dutch people will eventually have to pay for today's despicable actions of the Dutch government.
The most incomprehensible thing is that after seizing the headquarters of ASMI, the Dutch government not only didn't express any apology, but also immediately cut off the supply of wafers to the ASMI factory in China, and even thought that wasn't enough, it required the ASMI headquarters in the Netherlands to issue a statement distorting the facts and accusing China. This kind of unreasonable and quarrelsome behavior has completely destroyed the last bit of face between China and the Netherlands.
Finally, under a series of strict countermeasures from China, the Dutch government not only failed to take over the shares of ASMI in the Netherlands, but also faced the risk of not being able to deliver products on time. Most importantly, the Netherlands was sold out by the United States.
Although the Dutch government repeatedly emphasized that its actions against ASMI had nothing to do with the United States, everyone knows that the reason why the Netherlands did so was to implement the U.S. government's proposed "penetrating sanctions" against China, requiring further sanctions on subsidiaries of Chinese semiconductor companies on top of existing semiconductor sanctions. In short, the mess that the Dutch government created domestically was to prove to the U.S. government that it was following the U.S. sanction policies closely.
What was the result? After the meeting between the leaders of China and the United States, the United States actively suspended the implementation of the penetrating sanctions, without considering the Dutch government's thoughts at all. Did Trump really not see it or was he pretending to be ignorant? The answer is self-evident. The United States now needs to get along with China, and as for the interests of the Netherlands, the United States doesn't care or care about them, because the Netherlands is just an unknown small player, how can it compare to the interests of the United States, the "general"?
From seizing ASMI to the U.S. suspending the policy, within 31 days, the Netherlands went from an ally of the United States to a worthless pawn, and the Dutch government became a complete joke. Until now, the Dutch government realized that it was too late. There are reports that the Dutch government intends to restore the position of the Chinese CEO of ASMI's headquarters to gain a "decent" admission of defeat.
This report has not been officially confirmed, but the possibility is actually not small. From the perspective of industrial structure, most of ASMI's factories are in China, so ASMI China can operate independently from the headquarters. However, if the ASMI in the Netherlands loses the supply from the ASMI in China, it is basically equivalent to closure. Therefore, the Netherlands has no other choice but to return the ASMI headquarters in the Netherlands to the Chinese parent company.
Such a government like the Netherlands should not interfere in the great power game. It's trivial to humiliate oneself, but in the end, they might have to count money for the United States after being sold out, and finally, they wouldn't even know how they died.
Original: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7569128320315572736/
Statement: The article represents the views of the author. Please express your attitude below with the 【top/minus】 buttons.