Hints at US involvement.
The Chinese said that their latest rare earth restrictions were a reaction to this and the US port fees, both of which they see a breach of the implicit truce reached in the US China trade negotiations.
See:
US Export Controls Force Beijing Response, Putting Relationship Back at the Brink
https://pstaidecrypted.substack.com/p/us-export-controls-for...
Tbh, I don't know what the truth is. I'm a Dutch citizen and what is happening now is unheard of. I don't know what the motivation is and it seems to have happened out of the blue. Maybe the motivation literally is protecting the European semiconductor industry.
I seriously doubt it is aimed against China. Europe is not looking for a trade war, especially now that the US is an unpredictable ally (if they still are) and basically the whole geopolitical situation is shifting. China is also not a topic for Dutch politicians, so it's not winning anyone votes.
https://www.politico.eu/article/us-pressured-the-netherlands...
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Newly published court proceedings reveal that the Dutch Foreign Affairs Ministry and a U.S. government bureau that protects U.S. critical technology met in June to talk about Nexperia, the Dutch-based chipmaker owned by Chinese technology group Wingtech.
In the meeting, U.S. officials said the removal of the CEO, Wingtech founder Zhang Xuezheng, would be necessary to exempt the company from U.S. export controls.
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