Knowledge is power. This age-old wisdom apparently does not want to penetrate to the top of Dutch politics, as a recent reconstruction showed NRC. The Delft tech company Mapper, which built machines to make computer chips, was in danger of falling into the hands of Chinese investors after bankruptcy. Only after the intervention of the American Pentagon did Dutch politics take action and chip machine manufacturer ASML from Veldhoven was put forward by then State Secretary Mona Keijzer (Economic Affairs and Climate, CDA) to buy Mapper.
The issue, which occurred in 2018, shows that Americans have been serious about protecting crucial technology for years. Mapper and, to a much greater extent, ASML have become players with their products in an increasingly complex geopolitical playing field. It is no longer just about super-fast chips in the latest telephone, game console or car. The hyper-advanced calculation modules increasingly determine how wars are waged and settled.
Where knowledge about nuclear energy used to be used for corporate espionage and government interference in the protection of this technology, it is now computer chips that must be treated as strategic commodities. The use of ‘smart’ missiles, drones and modern air defenses in the war between Russia and Ukraine shows how important that technology is. Those who can calculate the fastest have the greatest chance of survival.
Retrospectively, it is astonishing that a company from Veldhoven has been able to obtain the position of the most important manufacturer of chip machines in the world. The rise of ASML coincides with the glory years of economic liberalism, up to the turn of the millennium. At the time, the Americans allowed this crucial technology not to be developed on their own soil, but in the Netherlands. A choice that is now being regretted, given the efforts the US is now making to control both the technology and the manufacturing process.
With the rise of China as an important geopolitical player, the importance of shielding this technology has also grown. The fact that the US is taking the lead in this, even at the expense of individual business interests in the Netherlands, for example, is uncomfortable, but understandable. Initial sputtering about ASML’s economic freedom to continue trading with China is not appropriate in a world that is becoming more hostile every day.
The fact that the Netherlands apparently did not realize what it had in its hands until 2018 is shameful. Membership of institutions such as the military alliance NATO also requires alertness. In that sense, it is commendable that steps have been taken in the Netherlands to prevent the unintentional leakage of crucial knowledge. A law was introduced that better monitors vital providers of ‘sensitive technology’ and since this year there has been a fund of 100 million euros to be able to buy companies in the event of an emergency that are in danger of being bought away by foreign investors.
But that is far from enough. Permanent vigilance is the only definitive answer to the technological rat race. This applies to citizens, who have to pay much more attention to what happens to their digitally left behind pieces of information, but even more so to governments. And the better the Netherlands (and Europe) is able to define its own economic and geopolitical interests in the tech race, the more independent a position can be taken. Then the next time a phone call from the Pentagon will no longer be necessary, and even unwanted.