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Practical Electronics Editorial offices Electron Publishing Tel +61 2 9939 3295 (Australia) Email pe<at>pemag.au Web www.electronpublishing.com Address mail to: Electron Publishing (Australia) PO Box 194, Matraville NSW 2036 Australia Advertising enquiries +61 2 9939 3295 pe<at>pemag.au Editor Nicholas Vinen Publisher Nicholas Vinen Digital subscriptions Stewart Kearn Tel 07918 614662 Online Editor Alan Winstanley Web Systems Kris Thain Production Bao Smith Technical staff Tim Blythman, John Clarke Print subscriptions Practical Electronics Subscriptions PO Box 6337 Bournemouth BH1 9EH Tel 01202 087631 United Kingdom Email pesubs<at>selectps.com Technical enquiries We regret that technical enquiries cannot be answered over the telephone. We are unable to offer any advice on the use, purchase, repair or modification of commercial equipment or the incorporation or modification of designs published in the magazine. 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The laws vary from country to country; readers should check local laws. 2 Volume 55. No. 08 August 2026 ISSN 2632 573X Editorial Europe needs a proactive policy on local tech & manufacturing Last November, the Dutch government took the practical step of suspending its intervention in Nexperia, the semiconductor supplier with roots in Philips and NXP. Wingtech, a Chinese company, completed its controlling acquisition of Nexperia in December 2019. Six years later, the Dutch government attempted to regain control using emergency powers, then had to step back. That episode is interesting, but this is not really a post mortem. The more important question is simpler: if Nexperia is critical European infrastructure, why was it allowed to pass into overseas control in the first place? The time to act was before the sale, not years later, after the ownership structure had become a diplomatic and industrial mess. Philips’ history is full of two things: innovation and disappointment. It created or helped to develop an extraordinary amount of technology, yet so much of that value was spun off, sold or squandered. Philips was often a better innovator than custodian. The lesson for Europe, and the West more broadly, is that we need to use the carrot rather than the stick if we want to create and keep serious technology companies. We also need a clear, consistent policy. Global trade is inevitable and often beneficial. It gives us lower prices, more choice and efficient supply chains. However, efficiency is not the same thing as resilience. If a conflict, blockade or sanctions clash between the USA and China disrupted trade, Europe would not want to discover that its industries could no longer obtain critical parts. In a free market, it is almost impossible for local manufacturers to compete with the scale, state support and supply-chain depth of Chinese industry. If we want local technology and manufacturing capacity to survive, we have to accept that some form of support will be needed. That support has to be disciplined. Subsidies can distort markets, reward poor management and create bizarre incentives. They can also become corporate welfare if governments spend public money building strategic industries, then allow them to be sold off once they become valuable. So the policy needs to be proactive: encourage local design and manufacturing and support industries that genuinely matter, while placing sensible limits on foreign takeovers where national resilience is at stake. That does not mean retreating from global trade and it should not mean starting a trade war. It means recognising that some capabilities are too important to rebuild in a panic. I don’t pretend to have a complete solution. But Nexperia is a useful warning. Let’s not sell more critical businesses, then realise too late that we needed them. Nicholas Vinen, Electron Publishing (Australia)* * a division of Silicon Chip Publications Pty Ltd. Practical Electronics | August | 2026