Karremans took over power at Nijmegen Nexperia last month because there were concerns about the Chinese CEO. He was said to be reckless with the company and the ministry also feared that intellectual property was being transferred to China. This is a sensitive issue with the extremely important technology in the chip industry, in which the Netherlands, including ASML, is the market leader.
Karremans’ intervention caused a diplomatic row, with anger from China about the Dutch maneuver. And in Europe, especially in Germany, there were fears that there would be too few chips to keep the car industry running due to Chinese repercussions.
Karremans said a week ago in The Guardian that despite all the unrest he would do it all again, but has now changed his mind. The move follows a visit by its officials to China early this week. The VVD minister speaks of ‘constructive meetings’ with the Chinese.
It is not entirely clear what gives him the reassurance that things will not go wrong again at Nexperia if he takes the company off the chain. In a short statement he spoke of a ‘show of goodwill’ by China. This has recently reversed the export restrictions it had imposed in response to the Dutch intervention at Nexperia. Karremans says he wants to continue the ‘constructive dialogue’ with the Chinese in the near future.