Europe’s biggest producer of advanced chipmaking technology has joined the United States in its escalating standoff with China. Xi Jinping hits out at US as he urges China's private firms to 'fight' alongside Communist Party China said Thursday it “firmly opposes” the Netherlands’ upcoming curbs, which come just months after the United States restricted sales of some semiconductor machinery to Beijing. The failed deals illustrate how, at a time of escalating US-China tensions, Europe is also under growing pressure to act, particularly as officials face US calls for key sectors to be kept out of Chinese control