CHINESE President Xi Jinping told visiting Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte today that attempts to restrict China’s access to technology will not stop the country’s advance.

The Netherlands imposed export licencing requirements in 2023 on the sale of machinery that can make advanced processor chips. 

The move came after the United States blocked Chinese access to advanced chips and the equipment to make them, citing security concerns, and urged its allies to follow suit.

An online report from broadcaster CCTV quoted President Xi as saying after the Beijing meeting that the creation of scientific and technological barriers and the fragmentation of the industrial and supply chains will lead to division and confrontation.

Mr Xi said: “The Chinese people also have the right to legitimate development and no force can stop the pace of China’s scientific and technological development and progress.”

Dutch company ASML is the world’s only producer of machines that use extreme ultraviolet lithography to make advanced semi-conductors. 

In 2023, China became ASML’s second-largest market, accounting for 29 per cent of its revenue as Chinese companies bought up equipment before the licencing requirement took effect.

In a briefing to journalists, Mr Rutte declined to go into specifics of the talks but said: “When we have to take measures, they are never aimed at one country specifically, that we always try to make sure that the impact is limited, is not impacting the supply chain, and therefore is not impacting the overall economic relationship.”

Earlier today, China won a nearly three-year-long dispute with Australia at the WTO over tariffs on steel products that began during a low point of bilateral relations between the countries.

Beijing took its complaint to the WTO in June 2021 over Australia’s extra duties on railway wheels, wind towers and stainless steel sinks imported from China. 

Trade in these products was worth A$62 million (£32m) in 2022.

On Tuesday, the WTO panel found that Australia’s investigating authority, the Anti-Dumping Commission, had acted inconsistently.

Australia’s Trade Minister Don Farrell said that Canberra accepted the WTO’s ruling and supported a rules-based trading system.

He said: “Australia will engage with China and take steps to implement the panel’s findings.”

Australia has halted another WTO dispute with China over sanctions on Australian wine worth about A$1.1 billion (£570m) in exchange for a review by China to be completed by the end of March.