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Letters | Europe must separate legitimate security concerns from politics
Readers discuss the Nexperia dispute between China and the Netherlands, a suit against the Malaysian government, and Hong Kong patient records
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As Dutch officials prepare to meet their Chinese counterparts in Beijing to discuss the Nexperia dispute, Europe faces a larger question. How did a routine investment review turn into a diplomatic incident between trading partners who once championed the “rules-based order”?
Western leaders say they are not at war, yet every rule of wartime economics now applies. Company management is seized, trade is blocked and neutral countries are threatened with secondary sanctions if they refuse to take sides. The language remains diplomatic, but the instruments are those of war.
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Europe now risks undermining the very legal predictability that once made it attractive to global investors.
Beijing has protested, and it bears restating that every action the Chinese government has taken has been both mild and consistent with Western diplomatic practice. In response to an ongoing series of Dutch export bans and with the addition of this latest takeover, it would not have been unheard of for diplomatic relations to be downgraded.
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The Chinese export ban was proportional and moderate, and the Nexperia case shows how easily “de-risking” can become “self-risking” when EU member states act first and coordinate later. Germany’s auto sector and Europe’s semiconductor ambitions both depend on continued market access to China; punitive gestures do nothing to improve security or resilience.
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