Chinese spies targeted Dutch industries, including chipmaker ASML, to strengthen military, intelligence agency says

Name: China executes scientist for spying in 2016, among 10 ‘shocking’ cases revealed in documentary
Uploaded: 2024-04-18T14:00:57.000Z
Duration: 5 min 29 s
Description: China executes scientist for spying in 2016, among 10 ‘shocking’ cases revealed in documentary

Dutch intelligence first publicly attributed cyber espionage to China in February, when they said state-backed cyber spies gained access to a Dutch military network

Last year, the Netherlands joined a US effort to keep certain chip making technology from China for national security reasons

2-MIN READ2-MIN

The Netherlands military intelligence agency said in its annual report, published on Thursday, that Chinese spies had targeted Dutch industries. Photo: Shutterstock

Reuters

Published: 10:00pm, 18 Apr 2024

Chinese spies have targeted the Dutch semiconductor, aerospace and maritime industries to try to strengthen China’s armed forces, the Dutch military intelligence agency MIVD said in its annual report published on Thursday.

As part of an ongoing trend of Chinese political espionage against the Netherlands and its allies, China is investing heavily in the collection of western knowledge and technical capabilities, the agency said.

“China wants to be independent from western knowledge and technology [and] wants to build a military that can match any other,” the MIVD said.

“To do so, it needs advanced technology it doesn’t yet fully possess. It tries to get this abroad, using legal means such as research and investments, but also through its intelligence agencies.”

Dutch intelligence agencies first publicly attributed cyber espionage to China in February, when they said state-backed cyber spies had gained access to a Dutch military network last year.

Last year, the Netherlands joined a US effort to keep certain chipmaking technology from China for national security reasons, restricting the export by leading chipmaking equipment maker ASML of certain deep ultraviolet (DUV) equipment for Chinese customers.

05:29

China executes scientist for spying in 2016, among 10 ‘shocking’ cases revealed in documentary

Earlier this month, the US government also pressed the Netherlands to stop ASML from servicing some tools in China, according to people familiar with the matter.