‘I’d do it all again,’ says Dutch minister at heart of car chip standoff with China | Automotive industry

>“We weren’t intending to go public on this. We wanted to solve this swiftly and silently,” Karremans says.

This seems to have been Karremans’ mistake. It would always have gotten out. And when it inevitable did, the Netherlands was caught on the wrong foot, as neither China, nor partners like Germany, knew what to think when it happened.

I still think Karremans was right to act, but he created a much bigger problem by trying to be secretive.

I also don’t believe that the US was involved beyond the brief meeting mentioned in court documents. The US didn’t need to do anything. The entity list and the affiliated rule took care of everything, there was no need for more pressure.