The Chinese government retaliated with sanctions against a Dutch parliamentarian who had played a major role in bringing about the genocide resolution. An EU body – the Political and Security Committee of the Council of the EU – in which a Dutch diplomat is involved was also targeted by Chinese sanctions. Geopolitics and the US factor Global geopolitics clearly have a major influence on Sino-Dutch relations. The Netherlands, like other European states, is affected by the competition and ongoing trade and technology "wars" between the US and China. In May 2019, the Dutch high-tech company ASML, a manufacturer of machines that are used to produce semiconductors, applied to the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs for an export license in order to sell its most advanced equipment to a customer in China (believed to be SMIC). ASML did not receive the export license. In January 2020, the Chinese ambassador to the Netherlands published a letter in the Financieele Dagblad, a Dutch newspaper.