In Washington's chip-war accounting, allies' losses are counted as US gains: China Daily editorial

As the world's leading supplier of the advanced lithography equipment that "gives the world's leading chipmakers the power to mass produce patterns on silicon", Dutch company ASML has been pushed front and center in the US-led "chip war" against China.

When it comes to cutting off international supplies to China of both advanced chips and the chip-making equipment needed to produce them, nothing matters in the face of "US national security". It's the devil take the hindmost, even for those countries that are allies and partners of the US.

Dutch autonomy. ASML's business interests. Neither is of any concern to the US now that it is making all-out efforts to ensure China does not have access to the latest generation of chips or the equipment needed to produce them. The Netherlands, and other allies and partners of the US, have been left in no doubt that the US expects them to do its bidding if they want to remain in its good books.

ASML, which was due to ship three chip-making machines to China, had its export license revoked after the US president personally intervened, according to reports. The two models involved are not even ASML's most cutting-edge models, being its second-most advanced chip-making equipment. Yet the company was still subjected to Dutch government export control last year under US pressure, with the new rules coming into effect on Monday.

According to reports, Dutch acquiescence with the US' game plan came in response to the direct demand of US President Joe Biden. Both the Biden instruction and the Dutch government's compliance with it were pointedly not the norm.

Calling the US move "hegemonic and bullying behavior" at a regular news briefing on Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin urged the Netherlands to be impartial, respect market principles and the law, and take practical actions to protect the common interests of China and the Netherlands and their companies, and to maintain the stability of global supply chains. But those words are likely to fall on deaf ears given Washington's determination to stymie the Chinese semiconductor industry and ASML's reliance on US technologies.

US restrictions on ASML exports to China will certainly be a setback for the Dutch company. After all, China is not only its third-largest and fastest growing market, it became the largest in the third quarter of last year, with the Chinese mainland accounting for 46 percent of its sales. The Dutch company's economic losses, however, carry little weight in the US government's calculations of profit and loss.

But just as the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman observed, for the US this is not about economic considerations. It is another brick in the US' technological blockade targeting China based on its universalized, abusive interpretation of "national security". The US' coercive behavior is in clear violation of international trading rules, and obviously undermines the international semiconductor industry and global supply chains. The kind of long-arm jurisdiction the White House has practiced is annoying even some of the US' closest allies and partners.

But at the end of the day, as proved time and again, Washington will do whatever it takes to achieve its objectives, regardless of the collateral damage.