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Citing Russia's invasion of Ukraine, it also said Russia was a
major threat to national security.
While the Netherlands regards China as a major trading partner,
its military ambitions are driving attempts to obtain Dutch and
Western technologies, the agency known by its acronym AIVD, said
in its 2022 annual report.
"Chinese companies and knowledge institutions sometimes are
valued partners for Dutch institutions. At the same time, the
country forms the greatest threat to Dutch economic security,"
the agency said.
"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 AIVD said.
A prime target is the semiconductor equipment maker ASML, based
in the southern Dutch city of Veldhoven, which is the world's
dominant supplier of lithography machines used to make computer
chips. China is ASML's third-largest market.
On March 8, the Netherlands' government said it would introduce
rules to restrict exports of semiconductor technology, broadly
in line with U.S. regulation rolled out in October 2022 that was
intended to hobble China's ability to make its own
semiconductors.
The technical details of the policy are still unknown, but ASML
said in March it expects a new licensing requirement for some of
its advanced tools.
The AIVD said in February Russia had spied on wind turbine farms
and infrastructure in the Dutch North Sea with an eye to
possible sabotage, and in 2022, the Dutch government expelled 17
Russian intelligence agencies.
($1 = 0.9111 euros)
(Reporting by Anthony Deutsch and Toby Sterling; editing by
Barbara Lewis)
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