Dutch seek to bar Chinese students from tech courses amid chip war
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The Netherlands is facing increasing pressure to help forge a global blockade to stifle Beijing’s rise in chip-making.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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AMSTERDAM - The Dutch government is working on legislation that will be used to bar Chinese students from university programmes on sensitive technologies including semiconductors and defence, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
While language in the planned legislation will likely avoid specifically mentioning China, the clear intention is to prevent students from the Asian nation gaining access to sensitive material in their studies, the people said, asking not to be identified as the deliberations are private.
The measures, still in draft phase, are the latest escalation in a diplomatic fight between the Netherlands and China over the semiconductor industry.
The Dutch government earlier in 2023 agreed to join the United States’ effort to further restrict exports of chip technology to China
The Dutch Ministry of Education confirmed that it is working on measures to introduce a mandatory screening of students and researchers in sensitive subject areas, according to an e-mailed statement.
It said that any measures would be country-neutral and not target any specific country.
A recent Dutch intelligence agency report claimed that China “poses the greatest threat” to the nation’s economic security. The country is one of the Netherlands’ biggest trading partners.
The intelligence agency said many Dutch companies and institutions find it difficult to make a proper risk assessment of economic and scientific cooperation with China.
“The country often conceals that the Chinese government or the Chinese army may be involved in such cooperation in the background,” said the report. “The disadvantages of cooperation often only become apparent in the longer term.”
It also said that China targets Dutch high-tech companies and institutions through “corporate takeovers, academic cooperation, as well as illegitimate (digital) espionage, insiders, covert investments and illegal exports”.
Earlier in 2023, ASML Holding, a critical cog in the global semiconductor industry, accused a former China-based employee of stealing confidential information.
The Dutch technology company, which makes machines needed to produce high-end chips used in everything from electric vehicles to military gear, initiated an internal investigation and tightened security controls after discovering the incident, which may have violated export controls.
The Netherlands, one of the world’s top sources of machinery and expertise needed to make advanced semiconductors, is facing increasing pressure from Washington to help forge a global blockade to stifle Beijing’s rise in chip-making.
But ASML is the country’s and Europe’s most valuable tech company, and China is one of its biggest customers.
The Dutch have been navigating a middle ground between the US and China in the escalating battle over the world’s chip supply chain.
Dutch measures to expand restrictions on exports
The Dutch decision to bar some Chinese students comes as the number of US student visas issued to Chinese nationals plunged by more than 50 per cent in the first half of 2022 compared with pre-Covid-19 levels amid strained political ties, according to a recent Wall Street Journal report.
The Dutch government recently implemented the Investments, Mergers and Acquisitions Security Test Act, which enables it to limit the size of investments or block a deal with international companies on the basis of national security.
Like the anticipated law on screening students, the new legislation on acquisitions is also country-neutral.
But “at the moment, Russia and China” are among countries the Netherlands needs to be “extra alert” about, Economic Affairs Minister Micky Adriaansens told Bloomberg in an interview.
The Financial Times reported earlier that the government plans to vet international students from China due to potential risk to national security, citing an interview with the Dutch Education Minister Robbert Dijkgraaf.
Dutch universities currently decide independently on the admission applications of international students and researchers applying for sensitive programmes.
They have the option to reach out to a government-led question booth on how to deal with these considerations.
In 2022, 89 questions were filed with the government from universities; 52 were about China, 21 were Russia-related, and 16 were on Iran, Mr Dijkgraaf said in a letter to Parliament in December.
In April, ASML and Eindhoven University of Technology announced a shared research programme that will cost “several hundred million euros” on artificial intelligence and semiconductor lithography.
The programme, which will include an ASML clean room on the university campus and the firm’s engineers teaching international scientific talents, will create up to 40 PhD positions yearly, according to a statement. BLOOMBERG
