Hi All
This morning, a friend texted me an FT news: ‘My company just got seized by the Dutch government.’ That’s how fast the rules are changing.
His company Nexperia had just been forcefully taken over by the Dutch government. He was stunned, unsure what this meant for his job or the hundreds of others employed there.
The official justification? - National security.
The real message? - The economic war just got upgraded.
The Dutch government has effectively frozen hashtag#Nexperia, a legally operating, Chinese-owned semiconductor firm, citing undefined “security risks.” Overnight, assets were seized, control shifted. No trial. No compensation. Just politics disguised as protection.
It’s a thuggish move — and a dangerous precedent. The hashtag#Netherlands, once a model of open trade and rule-based order, now risks looking like a vassal state, bending to Washington’s geopolitical whims. Or is Nexperia an unfortunate negotiating chip for ASML's access to rare earth supplies?
Still, the implications run deep:
• Which countries will next fall in line and which companies will be next to be usurped? Business continuity planning just went to a whole new level.
• Will more governments now be asked to pick a side, even those that have long prided themselves on neutrality — like hashtag#Singapore?
• This time round it’s a Chinese-owned company, could it be a Indian-owned, Indonesian-owned or Malaysian-owned company in future?
• Will investors start pulling back, judging deals not by returns but by which flag the money carries?
• If “national security” is the new get-out-of-jail card to rob, pillage and steal physical assets, what’s next — intellectual property, patents, data?
When economic warfare escalates to the political dimension, no one — not workers, not investors, not nations — walks away unscathed.
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/kokhow_nexperia-netherlands-singapore-activity-7383653649476075520-V2...
https://www.pekingnology.com/p/dutch-govt-accused-of-freezing-operations
Regards
Caute_Cautim
