An unstoppable rise

For twenty years, the world has witnessed, to its amazement and dismay, the economic rise of China.
A rise that has few equals in modern history: today, the Dragon produces 40 per cent of the planet’s manufactured goods, has trapped dozens of countries in the Belt and Road Initiative‘s loan sharks, holds a monopoly on rare earths and, thanks to an unrivalled fiscal capacity (€11 trillion every five years), invests in strategic sectors – from robotics to batteries – with a scale and speed that the West can only dream of.

While Europe and the United States were discussing environmental regulations and workers’ rights as if nothing was happening, Beijing was building industrial empires, subjugating entire production chains and preparing to dominate the 21st century.

But there is a flip side to the coin: this rise was not just the result of entrepreneurial genius or a tireless workforce. It was, in large part, the result of a systematic, cold and ruthless plan: the plundering of Western technologies.

The veritable ‘theft of the millennium‘, which is only now, with the Nexperia case, beginning to be countered with the harshness it deserves.

An authorised robbery

For decades, China has imposed on foreign companies that wanted access to its market an elegant blackmail: “You want to sell here? Fine, you will have to enter into a joint venture with a local company.”

Too bad that, once inside, the patents, industrial secrets and technological expertise of Western companies systematically ended up in the hands of their Chinese counterparts, often linked to the state and the Communist Party.
A legal, but morally repugnant mechanism that allowed Beijing to appropriate technologies developed elsewhere at the expense of others, and then become the main producer thanks to state subsidies, cheap labour and total disregard for the environment.

Just look at the semiconductor industry. European and American companies have invested billions in research and development, only to see their fruits end up in the hands of Chinese giants such as Wingtech, who then, with the support of the Party, undermined the original inventors themselves.

This is how China first became the ‘factory of the world’ and then the potential dominator of the tech market. And now that artificial intelligence, 5G and next-generation chips are at stake, the game becomes even more dangerous.

As the South China Morning Post wrote, quoting sources close to the Chinese government, ‘the acquisition of foreign technology has been a strategic priority since the 1990s’.
It looked like a business-to-business deal: in reality it was a robbery between states.

And the West, greedy for short-term profits, let it be.

Nexperia: the twist that could change everything

Until a few days ago, Nexperia seemed just another victim of this delinquent scheme.
The Dutch company, founded as a spin-off of NXP Semiconductors (itself spun off from Philips), was a jewel of the European semiconductor industry, specialising in ‘discrete’ chips – those that regulate power in electric vehicles, data centres and defence systems.

In 2018, Wingtech Technology, a Chinese giant with direct links to the state, acquired it for $3.63 billion. A deal that, at the time, went almost unnoticed: we still had the luxury of focusing on the Fridays for Future protests or the ramshackle calls for referendums against the euro.

But the day before yesterday, the Dutch government struck a historic blow: it invoked the Goods Availability Act, a law passed in the early years of the Cold War and never before applied, and expropriated Nexperia, snatching it out of the hands of the Chinese Wingtech.
‘We observed serious governance failures and actions that threatened the continuity of critical technological expertise on European soil,’ said the Dutch Minister of Economic Affairs, Micky Adriaansens.
Translated: we will not allow the latest generation of chips, the ones powering autonomous cars, military drones and critical infrastructure, to come under Beijing’s control.

Wartime measures

The decision was drastic: the board of directors was replaced, the Chinese CEO suspended, and management entrusted to an independent director.

“This is an unprecedented move,” Bloomberg commented, “and marks a point of no return in relations between Europe and China.”

Why now? Because Nexperia’s chips are not just any old component.
They are the ones that enable electric vehicles to manage energy efficiently, the ones that make secure 5G networks possible, the ones that, if they fell into the wrong hands, could give China an insurmountable military advantage.
As Caixin Global explained, ‘Nexperia is the beating heart of the European semiconductor supply chain. Losing it would mean handing Beijing the keys to the continent’s technological future.”

And so, for the first time, a small European people has said enough. Not with words, but with deeds.

Beijing’s anger and the fears of Europeans

The Chinese reaction was not long in coming. Wingtech called the Dutch intervention ‘excessive interference dictated by geopolitical prejudices’ and announced legal action.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry, through its spokesman Lin Jian, accused the Netherlands of ‘abusing the concept of national security’ and ‘undermining the confidence of foreign investors’. Wingtech’s shares have plummeted by 10% in two days, but it is the symbol that hurts the most: for the first time, a Western country has dared to openly challenge the Chinese model.

But Beijing did not limit itself to words: on 4 October, it imposed an embargo on Nexperia exports from China, blocking finished and semi-finished components produced at the Dongguan plant. An immediate retaliation, directly affecting the company’s global supply chain.

Not everyone in Europe is rejoicing. Concerned observers like the Financial Times warn that “Europe is still too dependent on Chinese supply chains. An open technological war could do more harm to us than to them.”
Again the Times suggested that the expropriation of Nexperia did not happen at the initiative of the Dutch, but as a result of a US ultimatum.

Yet there are also those, like Euronews, who see this decision as a necessary signal: ‘If we do not act now, it will be too late in ten years. China will never play by our rules. It is time for us to learn to defend ourselves.”

Are we already at the point of no return?

Here is the question we should all ask ourselves: is our dependence on China already so deep that we are powerless?

We have let Beijing steal our patents, make us dependent on its factories and now increasingly also on its tech sector.
Now, while the Netherlands is raising its head (perhaps not even without much conviction and at Washington’s behest), the rest of Europe is holding back.
Germany, with its ports largely supplied by Chinese companies, trembles. France, with its weakened national champions, hesitates.

Satisfaction with the Dutch move is great, but it is not enough. We need courage, unity and a European industrial strategy that does not just react, but prevents. Because if we do not act now, in a few years China will dictate the terms. Not only on chips, but on everything: energy, defence, artificial intelligence.

The battle for Nexperia is only just beginning. And precisely because we cannot afford to lose it, we must be wary of rash moves.

*The author of this article is an AI chatbot.