The move is the most recent step taken by the Dutch government to hinder Chinese entities and students from accessing Dutch technology.
According to the ministry, however, the new law would apply to all students coming from outside the European Union, and not just Chinese.
Probe Into Chinese Doctoral Candidates
In April, Dutch Minister of Education Robbert Dijkgraaf announced a probe that would look into “the total number of PhD candidates on a China Scholarship Council (CSC) as well as the fields in which they are active in the Netherlands.”The investigation should shed more light on “the type of contractual conditions” under which the doctoral candidates travel to the Netherlands to work, according to Dijkgraaf.
Additionally, the minister said he planned to inquire with the umbrella body Universities of The Netherlands (UNL) about the possibility of imposing harsher limits on organizations that offer foreign scholarships. According to Dijkgraaf, all universities are currently conducting risk analyses with respect to knowledge security, which also cover scholarship programs and doctoral candidates receiving financial aid.
China–the Biggest Threat
The annual report published in April by the Dutch intelligence agency warned that countries wishing to steal expertise are drawn to the Netherlands, with China recognized as being “the biggest threat.”“China uses both legitimate investments, corporate takeovers and academic cooperation, as well as illegal (digital) espionage, insiders, covert investments, and illegal export. Dutch companies, knowledge institutions, and scientists are regularly victims of this,” the report reads.
Blocking China From Key Semiconductor Technology
In March, the Dutch government agreed to block China from having access to chip manufacturing technology, heating up a longstanding conflict with Beijing over semiconductors.The Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation, Liesje Schreinemacher, told the Dutch parliament on March 8 that the proposed limitations on CCP access to sensitively designed advanced equipment—which uses ultraviolet light to etch circuits on processor chips—was essential on security and human rights grounds.
ASML Holdings, which is based in Veldhoven in the Netherlands, is the world’s only producer of equipment that uses extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUVL) to etch microscopically precise circuits onto silicon, allowing them to be packed more closely together—thus boosting their speed and reducing their power demand.
The trade minister did not directly mention China or ASML—arguably Europe’s most critical tech firm and one of the largest global suppliers of semiconductor equipment—in her letter to parliament.
“In view of technological developments and geopolitical context, the government has come to the conclusion that it is necessary for (inter)national security to extend the existing export control of specific semiconductor production equipment,” wrote Schreinemacher.
Semiconductor Security Pact
The restrictions came after January talks between Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and President Joe Biden on advanced chip technology made by ASML Holdings, as well as other security issues.Tech industry experts say that the lack of access to ASML’s latest advanced manufacturing technology has become a serious handicap in the Chinese communist regime’s long-term plans to develop its own state-of-the-art chip industry.
Chinese manufacturers are currently only able to produce low-end chips used in vehicles and in common consumer electronics, but not those used in smartphones, servers, and other high-end products.