China has sought to circumvent export restrictions and has attempted to procure equipment and know-how from the Netherlands aerospace sector, the Dutch military spy agency MIVD has said in a recent report.
Beijing has denied the allegation. Accusations of Chinese companies spying are not based on evidence, untrue and unfair, the Chinese Embassy in the Netherlands said in response to a Dutch intelligence service assessment that hyped “China threats” such as “commercial espionage and covert investments,” reported Global Times.
“The Netherlands remains an attractive espionage target for China especially in the domain of semiconductor industry, quantum technology and the aerospace and maritime industry,” the MIVD military spy agency’s head Jan Swillens said.
Swillens, who was delivering an annual report, said his service had last year “detected and prevented various Chinese attempts to acquire (military) technology.”
The Military Intelligence of the Netherlands (MIVD) reported that in 2022, China made several attempts to purchase military technology beyond the export restrictions. At the same time, the agency’s employees discovered a number of front companies used for this heist.
“Dutch firms, knowledge institutes and scientists are being targeted on a large scale. China is rapidly developing advanced weapons with advanced technologies including different types of anti-satellite weapons which are highly destructive in nature.”
The MIVD said that China is working intensively to increase satellite launches and is seeking to conduct as many as 100 a year, up from 40 in 2020.
The MIVD added China’s aim is to lead the way in space through the development of state-of-the-art quantum communication networks with global coverage.
The Dutch general intelligence agency AIVD, the MIVD’s partner agency, warned on Monday that China posed “the greatest threat to Dutch economic security”.
Netherlands’ intelligence agency in its 2022 annual report that China had used “legitimate investments, corporate takeovers and academic cooperation, as well as illegal (digital) espionage, insiders,” among other methods in the European country, and claimed that Dutch companies, knowledge institutions and scientists are regularly “victims” of these moves, the Global Times reported.
The Netherlands is a European leader manufacturing chips which are indispensable components for goods including smartphones and connected vehicles and also military hardware.
In March, under pressure from Washington, The Hague announced plans for new export restrictions on technology to make computer chips in order to limit Chinese access to the technology.
US is coercing other countries, including the Netherlands, to hobble China’s ability to make its own semiconductors. In March, the Dutch trade minister was quoted in media reports as saying that the Netherlands will impose new restrictions on exports of semiconductor technology, a move broadly in line with US restrictions imposed in October 2022, reported Global Times.