As its presence in global chip value chains remains weak, China has few options to mitigate the risks. The country's sole lithography systems maker Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment (Group) Co was added to Washington's Entity List in December, restricting its access to US technologies. On another note, ASML stated that it recently discovered that a former employee in China had misappropriated data related to its proprietary technology. According to a CNBC report, the Dutch firm said that it does not believe the alleged misappropriation is material to its business. "We have experienced unauthorized misappropriation of data relating to proprietary technology by a (now) former employee in China," ASML said in its annual report. "However, as a result of the security incident, certain export control regulations may have been violated. ASML has therefore reported the incident to relevant authorities." ASML did not expand on the details but reports state that the data that was misappropriated involved documents.