Chinese Nexperia managers order staff to ignore Dutch oversight

The Chinese management of chipmaker Nexperia has instructed its employees in China to ignore directives “from outside,” intensifying a dispute over control of the Dutch-based company.

The letter, obtained by FD and circulated through Chinese media on Sunday, states that Nexperia is “a Chinese company with operations rooted in China” and must comply with Chinese laws and regulations. The management urged employees to "disregard external interference," allegedly an implicit reference to the Dutch government, which acted last week to take control of the Nijmegen-based firm.

Vincent Karremans, caretaker Minister of Economic Affairs, recently invoked a rarely used law to block the transfer of technological knowledge and intellectual property from Nijmegen-based Nexperia to China. In a separate move, the Enterprise Chamber of the Amsterdam Court of Appeal temporarily sidelined Nexperia’s Chinese owner, Zhang Xuezheng. In response to these measures, China banned exports from the Chinese Nexperia factory until further notice.

“This is a direct response to the actions of local authorities,” the letter stated, criticizing what it described as “interference by local governments” and demanding that they “cease their erroneous actions.”

Nexperia, originally a part of Philips, has become a flashpoint in the broader debate over foreign ownership and national security in the semiconductor industry. Dutch officials have argued that oversight is necessary due to the strategic nature of the company’s technology.