The Netherlands should give up their cold war mentality and stop conjuring up conflict, Chinese Foreign Affairs spokesperson Wang Wenbin said during a press conference on Tuesday amid rising tensions between the two nations.
Wenbin’s remarks were in response to a report published by the Dutch General Intelligence and Security Service (AIVD) a day earlier. The AIVD report, a look back on national security in the Netherlands in 2022, designated China as the “biggest threat” to Dutch security, particularly in the economic sphere, while calling the country an “important trade partner”.
“It is irresponsible for relevant Dutch authorities to frame such mutually beneficial cooperation as an issue about security. This could sour the atmosphere for bilateral cooperation and does not serve the interest of the Netherlands,” Wenbin replied to a question by Bloomberg.
“We hope the Netherlands will abandon the Cold War mentality, stop creating hypothetical pretexts to smear Chinese companies, academic institutions and their personnel, and be open-minded, rational and objective about having normal economic and academic cooperation with China,” he added.
The report pointed out China’s potential threat to the Dutch semiconductor industry, specifically Dutch company ASML, a world-renowned chip manufacturer. Just last month, the Netherlands introduced export controls on chipmaking technology in order to curb supplies to China as part of an initiative by Japan and the United States.
The threat of “illegitimate (digital) spying” and meddling by Chinese security and intelligence agencies are also mentioned in the report. Just last September, human rights NGO “Safeguard Defenders” reported about the existence of Chinese “overseas police service stations” across Europe, including the Netherlands, violating the international rule of law.
Later in December, Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra said the Chinese embassy had confirmed that the last overseas police station in the Netherlands had shut down.
(Benedikt Stöckl | EURACTIV.com)
Source: euractiv.com
