U.S. officials’ warning to their Dutch counterparts was stark: If they wanted a Netherlands-based chip maker to avoid being put on a trade blacklist, it would almost certainly have to remove its Chinese owner as CEO. “The fact that the company’s CEO is still that same Chinese owner is problematic,” American officials said in a June 2025 meeting on the topic. The Americans soon got their wish. In September 25, 2025, the Dutch economy ministry seized control of Nexperia from China’s Wingtech Technology. The next day, a Dutch court granted an emergency petition to suspend Wingtech founder Zhang Xuezheng as Nexperia’s CEO and put all but one of the semiconductor company’s shares under external management.

China quickly fired back at the seizure, ordering Wingtech in early October to suspend exports of Nexperia of chips that the company has long sent for packaging and testing in China…The Dutch economy minister said in a letter to parliament that he moved to seize control of Nexperia based on evidence that the CEO was moving quickly to shift production capacity, financial resources and intellectual property to China, not because of pressure from any other country… The Dutch government and Dutch and German executives of the company had tried for months to ringfence the company’s business from Chinese control to accommodate domestic concerns—and avoid being hit by the U.S. blacklist… Dutch officials told Nexperia that the coming expansion of U.S. trade restrictions could lead to restrictions on the business, unless measures were taken to limit the transfer of knowledge and capabilities to China.

In the past, Nexperia relied on its European factories and contract manufacturers in Taiwan to make chips for China. In 2020, Zhang set up a wafer factory in Shanghai. The business, called Wingskysemi, started production in 2023 and has become one of Nexperia’s key suppliers….

Excerpt from Sam Schechner et al, , How U.S. Pressured Netherlands to Oust CEO of Chinese-Owned Chip Maker, WSJ, Oct. 14, 2025