Netherlands Joins U.S. Efforts to Restrict Semiconductor Exports to China

The government of the Netherlands is joining a U.S.-led effort to restrict the export of semiconductor chips to China, a campaign aimed at slowing the growth of the communist country’s military.

In order to be effective, U.S. restrictions need to include key suppliers in the European country, as well as Japan.

Via Reuters:

The Netherlands’ government on Wednesday said it plans new restrictions on exports of semiconductor technology to protect national security, joining the U.S. effort to curb chip exports to China.

The announcement marked the first concrete move by the Dutch, who oversee essential chipmaking technology, toward adopting rules urged by Washington to hobble China’s chipmaking industry and slow its military advances.

The U.S. in October imposed sweeping export restrictions on shipments of American chipmaking tools to China, but for the restrictions to be effective it needs other key suppliers in the Netherlands and Japan, who produce key chipmaking technology, to agree. The allied countries have been in talks on the matter for months.

Sometimes called the “brains” of modern computing systems, semiconductors can be found in virtually every modern electronic device that uses computing power.

Depriving China of easy access to semiconductors will rob it of the computing power it needs to train artificial intelligence at scale, and grant the U.S. and its allies a major advantage in the ongoing tech and military race against the communist regime.

In August, President Biden signed the CHIPS Act into law, a major piece of legislation aimed at bolstering the domestic semiconductor industry in the U.S. However, as noted by Breitbart News’ John Carney, Democrats slipped partisan social policy into the bill that was unrelated to semiconductor production.