BEIJING – China's Ministry of Commerce on Friday called on relevant countries to resist economic coercion from the United States in the semiconductor sector.

A ministry spokesperson made the remarks following media reports that the US is considering tougher measures to exert pressure on enterprises from countries such as Japan and the Netherlands to restrict their trade of chips with China to a greater extent.

The ministry said that China hopes relevant countries will adhere to market principles and the spirit of their contracts, resist economic coercion from the US, and work together to safeguard the stability of global industrial and supply chains.

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The semiconductor sector is highly globalized after decades of growth, and this is the result of market law and the choices enterprises have made, the spokesperson said.

For many years, the US has regularly overstretched the concept of national security, abused export control measures, deliberately split the global semiconductor market, and wantonly interfered in normal economic and trade exchanges between enterprises from other countries, according to the ministry.

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China has always been firmly opposed to these practices, which deviate seriously from the principles of free trade and multilateral trade rules, and impact the stability of global industrial and supply chains, the spokesperson said.