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China-EU relations
ChinaDiplomacy

EU to stand with US in ‘depriving China of the most advanced chips’, trade official says

  • ‘You will always find Europe by your side when it comes to ensuring our common security in technology,’ Thierry Breton, EU internal-market commissioner, says
  • He also urges a closer EU-US alignment on rare earths to ‘reduce collective reliance on Asia’

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European Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton said on Friday that the EU agrees with the US goal of impeding China’s chips industry. Photo: EPA-EFE
Khushboo Razdanin New York

A senior European Union trade official said on Friday that the US had the bloc’s “full” commitment to the goal of choking China’s semiconductor industry.

“We fully agree with the objective of depriving China of the most advanced chips”, Thierry Breton, the EU’s internal-market commissioner, said at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.

“We cannot allow China to access the most advanced technologies.”

02:38

Berlin stops Chinese companies from investing in German chip makers over security concerns

Berlin stops Chinese companies from investing in German chip makers over security concerns
Breton made his remarks just hours before reports emerged that US President Joe Biden had struck a deal with the Netherlands and Japan to restrict exports of some advanced chipmaking machinery to China.

In October, the US restricted exports of high-end semiconductors and chip-making technology to China. Since then, the Biden administration has pressed Europe to take similar measures. But the EU has been wary.

Last week, the Dutch trade minister Liesje Schreinemacher said that the Netherlands would not immediately comply with US restrictions on China, and that it was consulting allies in Asia and the EU.

Since 2019, the Dutch government has denied ASML Holding, the Netherlands’ largest company and the world’s leading manufacturer of hi-tech equipment used in producing most advanced chips, permission to ship its most advanced machines to China. However, ASML sold €2 billion (US$2.17 billion) worth of older machines to China in 2021.

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