Dutch PM Rutte to meet with Chinese leaders Xi Jinping & Li Qiang in Beijing next week

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte will travel to China next week, where he will meet with President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Li Qiang. The leaders of the two countries will discuss "bilateral and economic relations, the war in Ukraine and the situation in the Middle East," the caretaker Cabinet announced on Friday. The two-day visit will also include talks between Foreign Trade Minister Geoffrey van Leeuwen and his counterpart, Wang Wentao, who will be joined by a delegation of business representatives.

Rutte and Van Leeuwen will arrive in China on Tuesday, and will kick off the trip with a dinner with Dutch entrepreneurs and executives based in the country. They will meet with Xi and Li the following day. Rutte and Xi last met on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Bali in November. They also had a virtual meeting during the coronavirus pandemic. Rutte last met with Xi in China in 2018.

The Dutch government did not specifically mention if ongoing restrictions on the export of high-tech machinery will be a specific discussion point. The restrictions almost exclusively affect the ability of ASML to export its deep ultraviolet lithography and extreme ultraviolet lithography systems used for the production of microchips. The export ban relates to ASML's "most advanced" immersion lithography tools, the company said, but also some older equipment. The Netherlands implemented the ban so the technology cannot be used for military purposes, to create a trade imbalance, and to maintain Dutch strategic positions in high-tech fields.

There is now pressure on the Netherlands to also block ASML from maintaining or revising the equipment that shipped to Chinese clients before the export ban. The pressure is coming from the United States, which also led the push for widening the export ban a year ago. The Chinese ambassador to the Netherlands, Tan Jian, said last year that such restrictions will likely damage bilateral relations.

Additionally, the Netherlands has repeatedly accused Chinese intelligence services and organizations of espionage in the Netherlands. Six weeks ago, the Dutch Ministry of Defense accused a Chinese state player of trying to infiltrate government information systems with malware found in the Fortigate software used to allow people to work remotely in a secure environment. Military intelligence service MIVD discovered the malware on an isolated system, and published a global bulletin about the find. China denounced the claim as "malicious speculations and groundless accusations."

The Netherlands has also accused Chinese spies of hacking into chip maker NXP's systems, and the country was linked to attempts to spy on companies through recruitment practices on LinkedIn. The Dutch government has also largely abandoned the platform TikTok over data theft fears, and it was believed that secret Chinese police stations were also present in the Netherlands. China has largely denied all claims.

Just this week, news emerged that Dutch authorities are expected to begin examining container cranes at the Port of Rotterdam to see if they contain equipment that can be used for spying purposes, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Infrastructure told FD. This was announced after U.S. investigators found cellular modems attached to crane components made by Chinese firm ZPMC and in the server room used to communicate with the cranes. The modems were not authorized, were not part of the bid, and their purpose was not immediately clear, U.S. officials said.

China also denied involvement or knowledge in the matter. About 100 cranes made by ZPMC are located at the Rotterdam port, and the company also runs a plant in Rotterdam to maintain and upgrade its cranes.

The issue of Taiwan and China's ongoing effort to assert its national authority over the country will also likely be on Rutte's mind, as it is consistently discussed by left, center and right parties in Dutch Parliament. Ruben Brekelmans, a parliamentarian in Rutte's VVD party, brought up Taiwan last month in a debate. "The Chinese seem to feel empowered by the war in Ukraine to threaten Taiwan more and more, to fly more and more spy balloons and to cross the center line of the Taiwan Strait more and more often," he said.

Rutte will also lecture students at Beijing University. "This will be followed by a conversation with a number of Chinese students who study Dutch language and culture, and Dutch students who study at various universities in Beijing," the Cabinet said. At the same time, Van Leeuwen will meet with Wang to "discuss economic cooperation opportunities, the importance of a level playing field and the importance of equal market access."

The Dutch prime minister will also spend the afternoon visiting the Dashilar Subdistrict in Beijing. He will meet with Chinese entrepreneurs during the stop.

The Dutch Cabinet members will return to the Netherlands after a dinner hosted by Prime Minister Li.