Wang Wentao stated that this year marks the tenth anniversary of the establishment of an open and pragmatic comprehensive partnership between China and the Netherlands. China appreciates the Netherlands' commitment to free trade and regards the Netherlands as a reliable economic and trade partner. China hopes that the Netherlands will uphold the spirit of contracts, support companies in fulfilling their contractual obligations, and ensure the normal trade of lithography machines. It is necessary to prevent security overgeneralization, jointly safeguard the stability of the global semiconductor industry supply chain, and promote the sustained and healthy development of bilateral economic and trade relations.

Van Rhijn expressed that the Netherlands is a trading nation and advocates free trade, attaching great importance to economic and trade cooperation with China. China is one of the most important economic and trade partners of the Netherlands, and the Netherlands is willing to continue to be a reliable partner for China. The export controls of the Netherlands are not targeted at any specific country, and decisions are based on independent assessments and are aimed at minimizing the impact on the global semiconductor industry supply chain as much as possible under the premise of safety and controllability.

Lithography machines are important equipment for chip manufacturing, mainly produced by companies such as ASML in the Netherlands, and Canon and Nikon in Japan. Among them, ASML holds nearly 80% of the market share.

Roger Dassen, Chief Commercial Officer of ASML, stated during ASML's fourth-quarter 2023 financial results conference call that ASML's business in the Chinese market performed strongly in 2023, primarily due to order deliveries in 2022 and China's equipment focusing on stable demand in mature process markets.

ASML's financial data shows that the mainland Chinese market accounted for 46% of ASML's sales performance in the third quarter of 2023 and 39% in the fourth quarter, both being the highest market share of ASML's global revenue in the respective quarters.