Diplomats from the EU’s 27 member states were pressured this week to lift sanctions on Yusha Group, a Chinese textiles manufacturer accused of selling sensitive European technology to Russian buyers.
In exchange, Beijing has pledged that the company will refrain from shipping banned items to Russian military-linked buyers. It will also remove German company Sindlhauser Materials from its own export controls list, according to multiple sources familiar with the affair.
The unusual quid pro quo – the product of high-wire negotiations at the top level of EU and Chinese politics – is designed to protect the supply chain of Europe’s most valuable technology company, Dutch-based ASML, of which Sindlhauser is a reported supplier.