Japan, Netherlands To Join US in Chip Controls on China

Japan and the Netherlands are poised to join the US in limiting China's access to advanced semiconductor machinery, forging a powerful alliance that will undercut Beijing's ambitions to build its own domestic chip capabilities, Bloomberg News reported Friday, citing people familiar with the negotiations. From the report: US, Dutch and Japanese officials are set to conclude talks as soon as Friday US time on a new set of limits to what can be supplied to Chinese companies, the people said, asking not to be named because the talks are private. Negotiations were ongoing as of late Thursday in Washington. There is no plan for a public announcement of restrictions that will likely be just implemented, the people said.

The Netherlands will expand restrictions on ASML Holding NV, which will prevent it from selling at least some of its so-called deep ultraviolet lithography machines, crucial to making some types of advanced chips and without which attempts to set up production lines may be impossible. Japan will set similar limits on Nikon. The joint effort expands on restrictions the Biden administration unveiled in October that were aimed at curtailing China's ability to manufacture its own advanced semiconductors or buy cutting-edge chips from abroad that would aid military and artificial-intelligence capabilities.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.