The Dutch government is to put restrictions on the country's "most advanced" microchip technology exports to protect national security, following a similar move by the U.S., reports BBC News.

The ban will include products by chip equipment maker ASML, a key firm in the global microchip supply chain. In response, China has launched a formal complaint against the move.

It said it hoped the Netherlands would not "follow the abuse of export control measures by certain countries." China has frequently called the U.S. a "tech hegemony" in response to export controls imposed by Washington.

Semiconductors, which power everything from mobile phones to military hardware, are at the center of a bitter dispute between the U.S. and China.

A spokeswoman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Mao Ning, said the Dutch move aimed to deprive China of its right to develop.

The measures will affect "very specific technologies in the semiconductor production cycle," the Dutch trade minister Liesje Schreinemacher said. "The Netherlands considers it necessary on national and international security grounds that this technology is brought under control as soon as possible," she said in a letter to lawmakers March 8.