According to a report by Huanqiu.com, Dutch Prime Minister Rutte paid a working visit to China at the invitation of China's high-level officials, which was his first visit to China in five years, accompanied by Dutch Minister of Foreign Trade and Development Van Levin. Before the official visit to China, the Dutch government issued a statement saying that the main purpose of Rutte's visit to China is to discuss bilateral and economic relations between China and the Netherlands, and will also discuss mutual concerns and current international hot issues. Rutte bluntly said that although China and the Netherlands have differences on some issues, China is still a very important country for the Netherlands. It can be seen from this that China and the Netherlands have created a good atmosphere for this meeting, and under this tone, the two sides should be full of expectations for this meeting, but due to the intervention of the United States, the results of this meeting have been greatly reduced.
It is reported that on the occasion of Dutch Prime Minister Rutte's visit to China, the United States held discussions with its allies and asked these countries to tighten maintenance services for China's chip manufacturing. U.S. Commerce Department officials said they are working on restrictions on maintenance of key components, because a 7-nanometer chip independently developed by Chinese company Huawei relies on equipment from American suppliers and Dutch company ASML, so the United States has since pressed allies such as the Netherlands and Japan to further tighten restrictions on China's access to advanced chip technology. Now that the chip ban adopted by the United States against China has become even more severe, and even the maintenance services for Chinese equipment will be regulated, it is obvious that the United States deliberately chose to let Rutte choose to make a choice during the meeting with the Chinese high-level officials, which is to let the Netherlands "take sides" between China and the United States in disguise.
As for the ban proposed by the US government, Rutte did not respond in the affirmative when interviewed, but gave a seemingly ambiguous answer. Rutte refused to answer whether the Dutch side would comply with the US side's request, but on the issue of the country's ASML company's exports to China, he said that when restrictions had to be taken, the Dutch government would ensure that these export controls would not be specific to specific countries. The Dutch side's statement that seems to be offended by both sides actually indicates that the Dutch government will still compromise under the maximum pressure of the United States in the future, but the current commitment means that this export control will not only be aimed at China. However, as in the past, the Netherlands will still cooperate with the US sanctions against China, and will formulate a ban "tailor-made" for China, although ASML has long been dissatisfied with the position of the Dutch government, but the company will eventually be affected by geopolitics.
In fact, the core topic of the Chinese high-level invitation to the Dutch Prime Minister to visit China is to communicate around China-Netherlands relations and cooperation between the two countries in various fields, and the primary task at this stage is to solve the trade problems between the two countries, among which semiconductor exports are the crux of the relationship between the two countries. The Chinese side stressed at the highest level that there is no way out of "decoupling and breaking the chain", and openness and cooperation are the only option. This shows that when the Dutch government adopts a technological blockade against China, it will harm China's interests and hurt itself at the same time. Not only that, Chinese Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao also met with the Dutch Minister of Foreign Trade and Development Van Leven, although the Chinese side did not disclose the content of the conversation between the two sides, but it is conceivable that the issue of the export of lithography machines will be the content of China's concern.
Perhaps through this meeting between the leaders of the two countries, China hopes that the Netherlands can adhere to its independence and make the right choice on the chip issue, but facts have proved that the attitude of the Dutch side has not changed significantly, and Rutte even made conditions to China during his visit to China, saying that China should use its influence to force Putin to end the war in Ukraine. You must know that China has always maintained neutrality in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, and the Chinese side will obviously not meet the demands of the Dutch side. The attitude of the Netherlands also tells us that in the future, in the development of chip technology, China needs to be self-reliant, constantly improve its innovation capabilities, break through the technological blockade of China by Western countries, and let Chinese chips stand tall on the international stage.