Xinhua News Agency published a commentary on ASML’s recent drop in stock price. Below are some key excerpts from the article.
Due to lower-than-expected orders and a downgraded performance outlook, Dutch semiconductor equipment maker ASML recently experienced a sharp decline in its stock price, losing its title as Europe’s most valuable tech company. Many market analysts believe that U.S. restrictions are key drivers behind ASML’s drop in orders, asserting that U.S. hegemonic actions are detrimental to global industrial development and free trade.
It is a common tactic for the U.S. to use “national security” as a pretext to suppress foreign companies and “sanctions” to maintain its competitiveness. The U.S. presents itself as a “defender of free trade,” but it follows “market rules” at will. When leading in technology and holding a strong market position, it champions “free competition.” When other nations make significant technological advances that could challenge its economic and technological dominance, it disregards “market rules,” instead resorting to extreme measures and forming alliances to relentlessly suppress foreign enterprises, including those of its allies.
In the 1980s, when Japan’s high-tech sector posed a challenge to the U.S., the U.S. imposed anti-dumping tariffs and sanctioned companies like Toshiba. The U.S. “long-arm jurisdiction” tactics dismantled prominent French manufacturer Alstom. Targeting India’s steel, Canada’s lumber, and Brazilian agricultural products, the U.S. has employed a range of non-market strategies. It also adds more foreign companies to export control lists and enacts the CHIPS and Science Act and the Inflation Reduction Act, to attract more semiconductor and renewable energy firms to invest and build facilities in the U.S., and block other countries’ products from entering the U.S. market. The U.S. has also targeted electric vehicles (EVs), imposing a 100 percent tariff on Chinese EVs and threatening to ban Chinese software and hardware in networked and autonomous vehicles on American roads. Recently, the U.S. government is even considering restricting sales of advanced AI chips to specific countries, particularly in the Gulf region. These policies severely disrupt business operations, hinder market expectations, and obstruct normal industry growth.
The U.S.’s “freedom” of arbitrarily wielding power comes at the cost of the “unfreedom” faced by ASML and other international companies.
Source: Xinhua, October 19, 2024
http://www.news.cn/20241019/1c9f5f13984e4e63bfbbad7171992f3c/c.html