When German engineering and technology company Bosch inaugurated a new semiconductor plant in Dresden, Germany, earlier this year, it received large local media coverage as state-of-the-art chip production facilities are few and far between across the EU.
What makes the EU’s ties with China so complicated is that while still being a cooperation partner, China is more and more seen as a competitor and systemic rival, meaning that dependencies can also involve crucial security issues.
Kleinhans and Lee also highlight the current imbalance in the final step of the semiconductor value chain that’s come to be called back-end manufacturing, involving the assembly, testing and packaging of chips.