On 7 July, Dutch Trade Minister Sjoerd Sjoerdsma arrived at China's Ministry of Commerce with 17 companies behind him. Chipmaking giant ASML was one of them. By day's end, the two governments had agreed on a China-Netherlands Business Council.
Two weeks earlier, the same minister was in Washington D.C., warning U.S. Congress that a bill on their desks could gut that European company's business in China.