Less than two years ago, European authorities assessed the risks of China controlling Nexperia through Wingtech and gave the green light. This week, The Netherlands has used a 1952 emergency law to confiscate that same company claiming that it is strategic for European security.
Why is it important. Worse than being too rigorous or too lax is lurching. Europe has proven to lack a consistent criterion on what is strategic and what is not.
This inconsistency comes at an enormous cost: any company that wants to invest in technology sectors in Europe now knows that the rules can change retroactively, without prior notice, under external pressure. And that scares away investments.
The contradiction:
- If Nexperia was so strategic for Europe, why was it allowed to be sold to a consortium backed by the Chinese government in 2017?
- If it wasn’t then, what has changed now to justify a seizure using a law created for supply crises?
The only possible answer is that someone miscalculated very, very badly.
Between the lines. He editorial of Financial Times He puts it bluntly: Holland made a mistake in approving the sale, and is now trying to correct it. The problem is that this lurch sets a toxic precedent. You can pass all the regulatory filters, invest billions, operate for years under European supervision and suddenly the State decides that it was wrong.
When Wingtech bought Nexperia in 2019European regulators had plenty of time to block the operation. They didn’t do it. For years, Nexperia has operated in the Netherlands, manufacturing millions of components annually for the European automotive and consumer electronics industry. Everything legal, everything supervised, everything approved.
turning point. What has changed is not Nexperia’s technological capabilities or its strategic importance. What has changed is the geopolitical pressure:
- The United States blacklisted Wingtech in 2024.
- In September 2025, the US government extended restrictions to all subsidiaries of sanctioned companies.
- Court documents in the case suggest that the Netherlands acted under American pressure, not because of its own risk assessment.
Yes, but. Wingtech is right about one thing: this is “excessive interference driven by geopolitical bias rather than fact-based risk assessment.” It’s the exact opposite of what regulators did when they approved the sale. So they did evaluate risks with facts. Now they confiscate for geopolitics.
The money trail. Nexperia invested in its European facilities under Zhang Xuezheng. The company kept production in Holland, created jobs, paid taxes. He did exactly what an investor is supposed to do. The reward has been a confiscation by a 1952 law and a CEO suspended without formal accusations of mismanagement until it was convenient to find them.
The case has an additional twist that is dangerously reminiscent of Huawei in 2018-19:
- First come Western restrictions for national security.
- Then the Chinese countermeasures.
Days after the Dutch intervention, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce has banned Nexperia from exporting certain components from its Guangdong plant. The company is now caught between two countries that do not speak to each other. Huawei was gigantic and could hold its own. Nexperia is medium and we’ll see what happens with it.
At stake. There is…
- 12,500 employees without knowing what will happen to their jobs.
- A CEO suspended in Amsterdam.
- An export veto from China.
- European automobile customers dependent on their chips.
All this because less than two years ago someone approved a sale after “evaluating risks” and now it turns out that those risks were unacceptable.
If Europe wants to attract technological investment, it needs clear and stable criteria on which sectors are strategic. What it cannot do is approve operations for years and then seize companies when the geopolitical wind changes. That is not protecting technological sovereignty, it is improvisation disguised as national security.
Featured image | Nexperia
In Xataka | China is taking a giant step in its quest for technological self-sufficiency: its own EDA software
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings