The Dutch and the Japanese would go on to unveil their own sweeping controls on semiconductor manufacturing equipment, including ASML’s DUV machines and almost two dozen tools produced in Japan. Both countries have sworn ever since that they were acting in their own—very real—national security interests. (A spokesperson for the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs said much the same thing to WIRED, and Japan’s foreign ministry didn’t respond to requests for comment.) But to anyone paying attention, Sullivan’s influence was obvious.
Just a few days after the Blair House meeting, Sullivan was down the road, sitting inside yet another storied Washington, DC, institution—this time, the US Chamber of Commerce. The building’s intricate interior murals commemorate renowned explorers responsible for breakthroughs in global trade. Now Sullivan was also trying to chart new territory.
