So, the Dutch seized a Chinese owned semiconductor company:
The Dutch government seizes control over Nexperia, one of Europe’s biggest chipmaker, owned by China.
Nexperia’s Chinese operations pose a “threat to the continuity and safeguarding on Dutch and European soil of crucial technological knowledge and capabilities.” – 🇳🇱 Gov. pic.twitter.com/0PXmFIVvKp
— NXT EU (@NXT4EU) October 13, 2025
Mistake. Big mistake. And the Dutch will pay for it.
This is a clear escalation in the US/China trade war (the EU are on a leash, they have no independent trade policy.)
Here’s what I want everyone to understand. The Chinese make everything that matters. Not the end products, but the parts. They make the parts required for almost every industry to operate. For decades I inveigled against international trade logistics and the idea that “it doesn’t matter where something is made.”
China spent the last 9 years, since Trump kicked off the trade war era in 2016 with his absolutely moronic Huawei and chip bans, making sure that their supply chains are domestic or in completely trusted allies. (Vietnam is not going to start a trade war with China.) They make everything they need for most of their industries, with only a few exceptions, like commercial jet engines. (They’re working on that, but two or three years out.)
It used to be, for example, that they bought almost all their helium from America. They fixed that, and now make it domestically. This has been systematic. The Chinese looked at their weaknesses in a trade war and fixed almost all of them.
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America did little of significance, though Biden did start a small amount of rare earth and magnet industry. US industries almost all need parts or materials they can only get from China.
If China decides to seriously go to trade war, Western economies will collapse. They will have to shutter most factories, you won’t be able to get parts for household appliances, cars, planes, air conditioners, drying machines. Practically anything. And the West has given away so much basic industry that we’d be rebuilding almost from zero, in many cases. Even the expertise is gone in many industries, or those who have it are in their sixties or older.
If we fight a trade war with China we will be horrifically hurt.
China doesn’t want a trade war, because it will hurt them too. They still sell a lot to the West. But they will survive it far better than we will.
Stop being morons, and make trade-peace.