A Dutch government-funded research network has put the Netherlands’ semiconductor sector in the top risk category for Chinese foreign interference, with ASML and NXP named in the context of past espionage cases. The finding matters because the country’s chip industry is not just another export machine. ASML’s lithography equipment sits inside the global chip supply chain, which makes the Netherlands a pressure point for Beijing, Washington and Brussels.
The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies, in a report by Benedetta Girardi and Hans Horan for the China Knowledge Network, rated the chip sector as facing “very high” risk. The China Knowledge Network is funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. According to the report, semiconductors ranked above the maritime and aerospace sectors.
Girardi and Horan also discussed the findings with Nikkei Asia. Their recommendations are blunt: sensitive chip sites need more careful personnel checks, and the Netherlands should help companies replace risky foreign hardware where it touches critical systems.
What the report says China is doing
The researchers group Beijing’s interference methods into five buckets: economic pressure, digital and information operations, physical interference, legal pressure, and technology theft through talent channels. That last category is not theoretical for Dutch chipmaking.
ASML said in 2023 that a former employee based in China took information about lithography tools from an internal product lifecycle management system. The company has faced several insider theft cases dating back to 2015. The Dutch military intelligence service, MIVD, also identified the semiconductor, maritime and aerospace sectors as Chinese espionage targets in its 2024 annual report.
The report also points to economic leverage. China has restricted rare earth exports through 2025, and ASML’s advanced optical systems depend on those materials. The European Union has an anti-coercion instrument meant to answer economic blackmail by countries outside the bloc, although European leaders treat it as a last-resort tool. Girardi told Nikkei Asia that the instrument was “created with China in mind.”
Vetting without nationality shortcuts
The personnel problem is awkward because Dutch law does not allow screening rules that single out Chinese nationals. The report also says the standard Dutch VOG background certificate does not cover an applicant’s conduct or connections outside the EU.
Girardi and Horan propose a tiered model instead. Companies would first identify their most sensitive assets and roles, then apply deeper checks to workers with direct access to those systems. The report says those checks could consider vulnerability to bribery or blackmail. Junior employees and contractors would face lighter screening.
The second proposal is a resilience fund, built with the EU and NATO, to help replace high-risk hardware with European-made alternatives. The examples in the report include server motherboards, baseboard management controllers and large ship-to-shore cranes. Baseboard management controllers are small administrative computers inside servers, useful for maintenance and dangerous if someone untrusted controls them.
The fund would sit alongside Project Beethoven, the Dutch government’s €2.5 billion plan to expand domestic semiconductor capacity. The researchers also propose surge funding that would become available during crises, including sanctions escalation or major cyber campaigns.
The report was written as the Nexperia dispute unfolded. In that case, the Dutch government took control of the chipmaker from its Chinese parent, and Beijing responded by blocking exports from Nexperia’s Guangdong site. The researchers assess that in a crisis such as a Taiwan confrontation, Chinese leverage over strategic industries would probably narrow Dutch policy options and limit participation in allied responses.
ASML separately denied a U.S. government concern in June that one of its EUV machines had reached China in violation of export controls, telling Tom’s Hardware that the claims were baseless and damaging to its reputation.
This story draws on original reporting from Tom's Hardware.
