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Wennink left in April after a ten year term at the helm of ASML
that saw it become Europe's largest technology firm. Since 2018,
the U.S. has imposed increasing restrictions on what tools the
company can export to China, its second-largest market after
Taiwan, citing security concerns. Most recently the U.S. has
sought to keep the company from servicing equipment already sold
to Chinese customers.
"These kind of discussions are not being conducted on the basis
of facts or content or numbers or data but on the basis of
ideology," Wennink said.
"You can think whatever you want about that, but we're a
business where the interests of your stakeholders have to be
managed in balance ... If ideology cuts straight through that, I
have problems with that."
He said the company has had customers and staff in China for 30
years "so you also have obligations".
As part of seeking to strike a balance, Wennink said he had
lobbied where possible to prevent export restrictions from
becoming too tight, and at the same time he had complained to
high-ranking Chinese politicians when he felt the company's
intellectual property wasn't being respected.
"I think in Washington, maybe they sometimes thought, that Mr.
Wennink, maybe he's a friend of China," he said.
"No. I'm a friend to my customers, to my suppliers, to my
employees, to my shareholders."
He forecast that given geopolitical interests are at stake, the
chip war could take decades to play out.
"This is going to go on for a while," he said.
(Reporting by Toby Sterling; Editing by Toby Chopra)
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