China lobbies Dutch to defend trade after chip curbs

BEIJING (AP) — China’s foreign minister has appealed to his Dutch counterpart to defend free trade after the Netherlands and Japan agreed to cooperate with U.S. restrictions on Chinese access to advanced processor chip technology due to security concerns. The foreign ministry gave no indication whether Qin Gang directly addressed the controls in the phone call with Wopke Hoekstra. But the ministry repeated complaints made earlier against the United States that other governments were trying to hurt Chinese companies. The United States is trying to block China from acquiring the most powerful chips and technology to help its fledgling industry make them. Washington says they can be used in weapons and to facilitate the ruling Communist Party’s surveillance and human rights abuses.