THE HAGUE, NETHERLANDS – MARCH 23: Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte meets President of the People’s Republic of China Xi Jinping at the Catshuis on March 23, 2014 in The Hague, Netherlands. (Photo by Valerie Kuypers-Pool/Getty Images
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China’s technological progress cannot be stopped, Chinese President Xi Jinping told Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte as they met in Beijing on Wednesday for talks on critical sectors such as the semiconductor industry.
“The Chinese people also have legitimate rights to development, and no force can stop the pace of China’s scientific and technological progress,” Xi said, according to the Xinhua news agency.
Xi said China will “continue to pursue a win-win approach.”
Relations between China and the Netherlands have become tense since the Netherlands, along with the United States, blocked exports of advanced technology chips to China over fears they could be used for military purposes.
Semiconductor chips are critical components that can be found everywhere from smartphones to cars.
Dutch tech giant ASML has been barred from exporting extreme ultraviolet lithography machines to China – it is the only company currently capable of producing such machines. To date, it has yet to ship a single EUV machine to China.
Such EUV lithography machines are crucial for chip production and are used by companies like the one in Taiwan TSMC to make the smallest and most sophisticated chips.
In January, the Netherlands barred ASML from exporting some of its deep ultraviolet lithography systems, used to make slightly less advanced chips, to China.
Beijing criticized the Dutch government’s move, urging the Netherlands to “uphold an objective and fair position and market principles” and to “protect the shared interests” of the two countries and their companies.
“Creating scientific and technological barriers and breaking industrial and supply chains will only lead to division and confrontation,” Xi said on Wednesday, according to state media Xinhua.
He said cooperation was the only way and added that “decoupling and breaking the chain” was not an option.
Xi said China was ready to continue dialogue with the Netherlands and urged the Dutch side to “provide a fair and transparent business environment for Chinese enterprises.”
According to Reuters, Rutte said on Wednesday that the Netherlands sought to ensure that export restrictions, when linked to the semiconductor industry and companies such as ASML, were never targeted at one country. “We always try to make sure the impact is limited,” she said.
Chinese state media reported that Rutte responded by saying that decoupling is not a political choice even for the Dutch government, “as any act that undermines China’s development interests will only boomerang.”