4月11日，荷蘭金融日報(FD) 報道稱，中國籍員工從荷蘭半導體設備製造商ASML竊取商業祕密，給ASML造成數億美元損失。

　　對此，外交部發言人陸慷4月11日在外交部例行記者會上回應稱，不瞭解具體情況，但中國的科技發展一不靠偷，二不靠搶，是中國人民用自己的智慧和汗水，辛勤奮鬥出來的。

　　針對此事件，ASML今天也發佈公告稱，並不認可這一說法，ASML並不是“國家陰謀”的受害者。該報道中所提到的案件，是之前發生在美國的一起公開的訴訟案件。在該案件中，一家名爲XTAL的公司被法院裁定在2015年盜用ASML的商業祕密，ASML因而勝訴。以下爲公告全文：

　　從公告中可以看出，該事件發生在數年以前，這些ASML的前員工來自不同的國家，由於竊取和泄露ASML掩膜優化的軟件信息而違反僱傭合同。此軟件是ASML全方位產品和解決方案中的一小部分。

　　他們利用竊取的商業祕密製造競品，並將其出售至ASML在韓國的客戶。這家名爲XTAL的公司，擁有來自韓國和中國的資金支持。在聖塔克拉拉縣高等法院（Santa Clara Superior Court）的裁決中，基於其竊取商業祕密所獲得的利益和ASML所損失的銷售機會，XTAL公司被判向ASML支付2.23億美元的賠償金。這一審判結果對XTAL公司的影響巨大，該公司目前已破產。

　　ASML官方聲明原文：

　　ASML disagrees with any implication thatit has been victim of "Chinese espionage", as stated in an article inDutch financial newspaper Financieele Dagblad earlier on Thursday, 11 April2019. The article discusses the results of a public court case in the UnitedStates that ASML had initiated and won last year, in which a company calledXTAL was found by a jury to have misappropriated ASML's confidential andproprietary information and trade secrets in 2015.

　　"The suggestion that we were somehowvictim of a national conspiracy is wrong. The facts of the matter are that wewere robbed by a handful of our own employees based in Silicon Valley, who hadbroken the law to enrich themselves. All of this occurred several yearsago. We found this out by ourselves and immediately sought legal action inpublic court in 2016. This was reported on in several publications after ourvictory in November 2018," said ASML President and Chief Executive OfficerPeter Wennink.

　　While still employed by ASML, theseemployees, with various nationalities, stole software for mask optimization, aspecific small part of ASML