BEIJING (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 01st July, 2023) China firmly opposes the Dutch plans to impose export controls on equipment for semiconductor manufacturing and considers it a serious abuse of international trade and economic rules, the Chinese embassy in the Netherlands said.
On Friday, the Dutch Foreign Ministry said that starting September 1, new rules will apply to exports of semiconductor manufacturing equipment, specifically for advanced semiconductors that can be used in military technologies.
"This is an abuse of export control measures and a seriously deviation from free trade and international trade rules. China firmly opposes it," the embassy said in a statement on Friday.
China is the world's largest semiconductor market and an important part of the global semiconductor supply chain, the embassy noted, proceeding to denounce the Netherlands' justification of restrictions by purportedly national security reasons as groundless. This will "hurt�the good reputation of the Netherlands in supporting free trade," the embassy warned.
"We urge the Netherlands to immediately correct its mistakes based on the protection of international trade and economic rules and the general state of bilateral trade and economic cooperation," the embassy said.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry commented on the issue by condemning the US efforts to coerce other countries into joining its "technological blockade" against China.
"China opposes the US's overstretching the national security concept, abusing export control tools, using all sorts of pretexts to cajole or coerce other countries into joining its technological blockade against China. These actions of interfering in normal trade between companies through administrative means seriously undermine market rules and the international trade order, disrupt global industrial and supply chains, and serve no one's interest," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said at a briefing.
