Exclusive | China’s date with once-sanctioned Dutch trade minister on cards for early July: source

A Dutch minister who was previously sanctioned by Beijing will lead a business delegation to China in early July, according to a source familiar with the planning, as the two nations navigate thorny bilateral issues such as newly proposed US export curbs on ASML chipmaking tools and the Nexperia ownership debacle.

Sjoerd Sjoerdsma, who was recently removed from Beijing’s sanction list, will lead a four-day visit starting on July 6 with stops in Beijing and Shanghai. In the capital, the Netherlands’ trade minister is expected to meet with Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao, followed by a meeting in Shanghai with the city’s Communist Party secretary, Chen Jining, according to the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Sjoerdsma is poised to be the second minister from the new Dutch government, sworn in on February 23, to visit China, after a trip this month by the agricultural minister, Silvio Erkens. The specific members of Sjoerdsma’s trade delegation were not immediately clear.

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Sjoerdsma’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Wednesday.

Beijing sanctioned Sjoerdsma in 2021 following his criticism of alleged human rights abuses in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region – charges that Beijing has long denied. The restrictions on him were lifted in recent months, a source told the South China Morning Post earlier, though no official announcement has been made.

The visit comes as the two countries are navigating a fraught relationship over control of semiconductor manufacturer Nexperia and export restrictions on ASML’s lithography tools, both of which have been squeezed by Washington’s efforts to tighten hi-tech curbs on China.

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