Fears over China seeking military advantage from ASML tools underlie export blocks, says Dutch trade minister

Fears that ASML's computer chip 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 computer chip makers to help create circuitry.

"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 Feb. 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 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 license 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.

Van Leeuwen's answers dodged that question, adding that "several licences for the export to China of advanced semiconductor equipment have been granted" since the licensing requirement was introduced in September. It said it anticipates around 20 such requests in total this year, without specifying how many will come from China.

According to