Dutch government says China seeks military advantage from ASML tools
- China focuses on foreign expertise to ‘promote self-sufficiency in its military-technical development’, Trade Minister Geoffrey van Leeuwen wrote
- According to forecasts by industry group SEMI, around 18 Chinese chip plants will come online this year, more than in any other geographical region
Fears that ASML’s chip-making equipment will be used for Chinese military ends underlie recent decisions to deny the company export licences, the Dutch trade minister said in answers to questions from parliament.
Netherlands-based ASML, Europe’s largest tech firm, dominates the world market for lithography systems needed by chip makers to help create integrated circuits.
“China focuses on foreign expertise, including Dutch expertise in the field of lithography, to promote self-sufficiency in its military-technical development,” Trade Minister Geoffrey van Leeuwen wrote in a February 5 note, seen by Reuters.
Van Leeuwen said that ASML tools are used to make advanced semiconductors that can go into “high-value weapons systems and weapons of mass destruction” and the Dutch government focuses on “the risk of undesirable end use” when reviewing export licensing decisions.
Under pressure from the United States, the Dutch government last year introduced a licensing requirement for ASML’s mid-range deep ultraviolet (DUV) machines. The company’s most advanced tools have never been sold in China.
The questions posed by lawmaker Femke Zeedijk of the reformist NSC party asked why the government initially granted, then quickly retracted, a licence for ASML to export several tools to undisclosed customers in China. The company has sold hundreds of millions of euros worth of such tools to Chinese customers in recent years.