AT THE HEIGHT of the cold war, the Netherlands passed a law allowing the state to take over companies for security purposes. After gathering dust for 73 years, the law has at last been put to use. On September 30th the Ministry of Economic Affairs quietly took control of Nexperia, a semiconductor firm headquartered in Nijmegen that had been bought in 2019 by Zhang Xuezheng, a Chinese entrepreneur. A week later an Amsterdam business court suspended Mr Zhang (known by his nickname “Wing”) as CEO, replacing him with a Dutch interim chief. The moves were made public by the Dutch press on October 12th. They are among the most aggressive steps yet by European governments to protect strategic industries from China.
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