The New Precedent to War: Russia, Nexperia, and the Global Asset Seizure Trend

Europe stole a chip company. China bought ALL the gold. Is World War III starting over semiconductors? Spoiler: Maybe.

A Precedent to War…

Trade wars often come before shooting wars, usually starting with asset seizures.

Remember when the US led the theft of Russian reserves?

Well, déjà vu…

The Dutch government has taken control of Chinese-owned semiconductor maker Nexperia, warning of risks to Europe’s economic security after alleging “serious governance shortcomings” at the company.

This is an impressively dumb thing for Europe to do. The Dutch government literally stole the international operations of a leading Chinese semiconductors company.

They’re probably acting in coordination with Washington as it happened in tandem with President Trump’s new “50% rule,” which adds all subsidiaries of listed Chinese companies to the US Entity List.

The Dutch suspended Nexperia’s Chinese CEO, parachuted in a European with “decisive voting rights,” and placed the shares into a trustee’s control under an old wartime statute called the “Goods Availability Act.”

It was originally drafted to requisition bread and fuel during invasions. And unless I missed it, Holland hasn’t been invaded… well, not by the Chinese anyway.

The Dutch clearly didn’t think this through. Or maybe they did… and Washington made the call.

Either way, foreign investors are now asking:

• Will this attract or repel new investment?

• Will current investors re-think their capital spending plans?

Answer: Hell yes, they will!

Europe just torched what remained of its investment case. No non-Western capital wants to risk confiscation from a Eurocrat with a clipboard and a wartime law.

Furthermore, consider what this means — for example — for a Dutch company with operations in say… Shenzhen.

No wonder the Chinese are preparing for war

Predictably, China retaliated and banned exports of Nexperia chips. The Dutchies panicked, as if they hadn’t seen this coming. You steal a company, and they… steal the chips. Shocking.

I’ll leave it with this…These people are idiots!