Dutch Military Intelligence Services MIVD stated in its annual report released on Thursday that Chinese spies have targeted the Netherlands in areas such as semiconductors, aerospace, and maritime, aiming to enhance China’s military power.
According to Reuters, MIVD mentioned that as part of ongoing political espionage activities against the Netherlands and its allies, China is heavily investing to gather Western expertise and technological capabilities.
The military intelligence agency also mentioned that China “wants to be independent from Western knowledge and technology, aiming to build a military force that can compete with any other country,” but to achieve this, it needs advanced technology, which it is trying to obtain from foreign sources.
MIVD pointed out that China acquires technology from abroad through research collaborations, investments, and espionage activities.
The agency stated in its annual report that China continues to target Western armed forces to acquire knowledge in modern weapon systems and operational expertise, while also seeking expertise in other advanced industries.
“China (the Chinese Communist Party) is attempting to obtain technology from the Netherlands through various means, including cyber espionage, insider threats within companies, acquisitions, circumvention of export restrictions, and reverse engineering of technology that does not require a license,” MIVD said.
MIVD also emphasized that Chinese intelligence agencies expanded their network activities in terms of scope, intensity, and technological sophistication last year. Chinese universities also play a significant role in intelligence collection, as Chinese scientists collaborating with Western companies often work for China’s national security agencies and state-owned enterprises.
On February 6, Dutch intelligence agencies stated that a Chinese-supported cyber espionage operation invaded a Dutch military network in 2023. This marked the first time the Netherlands publicly attributed cyber espionage activities to China.
On March 27, during a meeting in Beijing between Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Chinese President Xi Jinping, the issue of Chinese government’s cyber espionage activities against the Dutch Ministry of Defense was raised.
China’s assertive actions in the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait in recent years have raised concerns among the United States and its allies. To counter China’s military development, the U.S. has imposed restrictions on exporting advanced chips to China. Last year, the Netherlands joined the U.S. in restricting Dutch chip equipment manufacturing giant ASML from exporting certain deep ultraviolet lithography machines (DUV) to Chinese customers. Previously, the Netherlands had already banned the export of ASML’s most cutting-edge extreme ultraviolet lithography machines (EUV) to China.
On February 15, 2023, ASML reported in its annual report that the company discovered that a former employee in China “unauthorizedly” misused data related to patented technology. Due to the potential violation of certain export control regulations, ASML reported this security incident to the relevant authorities.
At the time, Bloomberg reported that two individuals familiar with ASML’s investigation disclosed to Bloomberg that the former Chinese employee had confirmed potential connections with a Chinese government-supported entity and had stolen data on behalf of this entity. The entity had previously been involved in intellectual property theft, but the insiders did not provide the name of this Chinese entity.
An insider mentioned that U.S. government officials are investigating the former employee’s connections with the Beijing government.