China has gone beyond its territory to harass and intimidate its citizens settled abroad, Geo-politik reported. The country uses surveillance and data collected on individuals for intimidation, blackmail and coercion of its opponents, based in foreign countries. According to Geo-politik, people who have received such threats are the ones who have spoken about the repression by the Chinese Government against minorities such as Uyghurs, Tibetans, political dissidents, etc.
A case has come to notice in the Netherlands where a non-Chinese, Dutch journalist in a leading newspaper ‘De Volkskrant’, has been intimidated by unknown Chinese agents. The journalist, Marije Vlaskamp, was the correspondent of the newspaper in Beijing from 2001 to 2019. She has been regularly writing critical articles on sensitive subjects and has supported Chinese dissidents in the Netherlands even after returning from China, according to Geo-politik.
The journalist was subjected to Chinese intimidation and was implicated in a conspiracy to bomb (October 2022) the Chinese Embassy in The Hague along with one Chinese dissident, Wang Jingyu whom she supports.Secretary of the Tibet Support Group, Tsering Jampa, along with other minorities based in the Netherlands has regularly highlighted threats from states such as China, according to Geo-Politik.
China has sought to circumvent export restrictions and has attempted to procure equipment and know-how from the Netherlands’ aerospace sector, the Dutch military spy agency MIVD has said in a recent report.Beijing has denied the allegation. Accusations of Chinese companies spying are not based on evidence, untrue and unfair, the Chinese Embassy in the Netherlands said in response to a Dutch intelligence service assessment that hyped “China threats” such as “commercial espionage and covert investments,” reported Global Times. “The Netherlands remains an attractive espionage target for China… especially in the domain of semiconductor industry, quantum technology and the aerospace and maritime industry,” the MIVD military spy agency’s head Jan Swillens said.Swillens, who was delivering an annual report, said his service had last year “detected and prevented various Chinese attempts to acquire (military) technology.”
