The Dutch government is under renewed pressure to end its seizure of the Chinese-owned, Netherlands-based semiconductor company Nexperia, after Washington agreed to suspend its updated export control rule for one year.

Introduced in late September, that rule expanded US export restrictions to any company that was at least 50 per cent owned by entities on Washington’s trade blacklist.

The one-year suspension is expected to complicate the geopolitical dispute surrounding Nexperia, a critical supplier of semiconductors with automotive, industrial, mobile and consumer applications.

The Dutch government’s action, which included the ousting of Nexperia CEO Zhang Xuezheng, was partly a reaction to the anticipated effects of the new US rule.

An employee holds a wafer at a Nexperia production facility in Hamburg, Germany. Photo: Reuters

“China has found effective means to counterbalance relevant US policies”, said Zhang Guobin, founder of Chinese chip industry news website eetrend.com, referring to Beijing’s suspension of a set of new rare earth export controls unveiled in October.