ZOETERMEER, Netherlands (AP) – Dutch national intelligence on Monday painted a bleak picture of a growing number of internal and external threats to the rule of law in the Netherlands, compounded by Russia’s war in Ukraine, international cyberattacks and espionage.
In its annual report, the General Intelligence and Security Service called China “the greatest threat to the economic security of the Netherlands”.
The agency’s director-general, Erik Akerboom, said China is targeting the Netherlands as an innovative country developing new technologies.
“We see that every day they try to steal that from the Netherlands,” he told The Associated Press.
“The Chinese use cyber as a weapon, cyber as a means of spying, but they also send people to us – students, but also scientists of all kinds, especially to steal knowledge from very vulnerable places,” he said .
The Netherlands earlier this year announced plans to introduce additional restrictions on the export of machines that make advanced processor chips. The Dutch joined a US push aimed at restricting China’s access to materials used to make such chips amid fears they could be used in weapons to commit rights violations or reduce speed and accuracy improve military logistics.
China has criticized the moves as violating market principles in international trade.
Akerboom highlighted overlapping threats ranging from terrorism, extremism, cyberattacks, espionage, covert influence and sabotage to organized crime that undermines the rule of law.
The war that broke out when Russia invaded Ukraine last year exacerbated the situation. Sanctions on Russian energy imports led to gas shortages, which led to rising inflation. This in turn led to an increase in conspiracy theories.
“This gave extremist boosters in the Netherlands another opportunity to spread conspiracy theories about an ‘evil elite’ after the Corona crisis. Sometimes countries like Russia use the unrest in the West to covertly stir up contradictions in society,” the report said.
Russia has also long been actively trying to steal secrets from the Netherlands and other European and NATO allies, the agency said. The report highlighted the agency’s involvement last year in the expulsion from the Netherlands of 17 Russian diplomats suspected of espionage and the exposure of a Russian agent who tried to infiltrate the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
The agency cited a massive cyberattack on NATO member Albania last year as an example of “the massive threat now posed by countries with cyberattack programs like China, Russia and Iran.”
Albania severed diplomatic ties with Iran last year over a July 15 cyberattack that temporarily shut down numerous Albanian government digital services and websites. Tirana called the disruption an act of “state aggression”.
The service also noted that “hatred, anti-Semitism and conspiracy theories were spreading in the Netherlands” and said that this “prevented concrete threats from becoming a reality within the Netherlands”.
The threats came from “jihadists, right-wing terrorists and extremely anti-government people”.
The Taliban takeover in Afghanistan has also increased the existing threat from jihadist extremists, the report warned. It states that the Islamic State group, now operating in Afghanistan, “controls” networks elsewhere.
Responding to the recent leak of top-secret military documents in the United States, Akerboom said the disclosure underscores potential intelligence weaknesses.
“We cannot rule out that something like this could happen in the Netherlands,” he said. “You can’t guarantee that, but we’re doing everything we can to prevent that from happening because ultimately I think it’s a real risk that we should be taking on. I think it might indeed hurt the plans and strategies you have in place. That makes us weaker.”