Dutch Minister Warns of Heightened Chinese Espionage Threats

Chinese nation state groups ramped up espionage campaigns against Dutch critical infrastructure in recent months, said a state official who added that discussions are underway in the European Union on how to minimize Chinese threats.

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Speaking on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue security meeting in Singapore on Saturday, Dutch Defense Minister Ruben Brekelmans told Reuters that Chinese hacks against the country’s semiconductor sector that began last year are ongoing, with attacks “intensifying” in recent months.

“The semiconductor industry, which we are technologically leading, or technology advanced, of course, to get that intellectual property – that’s interesting to China,” Brekelmans said. He added that Beijing is misusing its “economic position” to impose “pressure” on the Netherlands.

Talks are underway in the European Union and at national levels to reduce European dependencies on Chinese raw materials, he said.

“Both at the European Union level, but also at the national level, we need to make bigger steps in order to reduce those dependencies,” Brekelmans said.

The Netherlands joined the United States in restricting exports of critical semiconductor parts to China.

The Dutch Military Intelligence and Security Service in April 2024 disclosed that Chinese and Russian hackers have been probing its critical infrastructure. Chinese activities are focused on upgrading their weapons systems, with the hackers primarily relying on zero-day exploits and endpoint device compromises for their targets, the agency added (see: Russian, Chinese Hackers Targeted Dutch Government).

The tactics align with a prior Dutch National Cyber Security Center warning of a Chinese hacking campaign that targeted dozens of Western governments. The hackers exploited a zero-day in FortiProxy security appliances (see: Dutch Agency Renews Warning of Chinese Fortigate Campaign).

The agency also said Salt Typhoon, a Chinese threat group behind the widespread compromise of telecom infrastructure in the U.S., has also been detected in Europe.