Two large Dutch offshore windfarms funded by Chinese banks

Two large Dutch offshore wind farms were funded with loans from Chinese banks, Trouw discovered. Experts worry that this will allow Chinese banks to gain access to confidential corporate information about the wind farms at a time when China is working to become the world leader in wind turbine construction, according to the newspaper.

The wind farms involved are Hollandse Kust Zuid (HKZ), 18 kilometers off the coast of Zuid-Holland, and Blauwwind off the coast of Zeeland. The Bank of China issued a loan of €1.2 billion for HKZ. Blauwwind loaned a total of €1.3 billion from the Bank of China and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the Dutch newspaper discovered in a global overview of over 30,000 projects financed by China. The overview was recently compiled and published by AidData, a research arm of the William & Mary University in Virginia.

When taking out loans, a company must provide confidential information about its financial situation and how it plans to generate profits so that the banks can verify whether it’s creditworthy. This typically involves information about the company’s cash flow and debt levels. Sometimes, it also includes information about its operations, competition, and strategic plans, AidData researcher Brad Parks told Trouw.

According to Parks, there is a “significant” chance that these state-owned banks will pass on sensitive information to the Chinese government.

Paul van der Putten, a China expert at the Clingendael research institute, is more cautious because he is not aware of any research on this subject yet. But he said that companies “should definitely take into account” that Chinese banks could pass on information. “China has been very active in cyber espionage against companies in recent years. The country wants to know how Western companies operate in strategically relevant sectors so it can align its own policies accordingly.”

Both wind farms confirmed to Trouw that they obtained loans from the Chinese banks and provided information. But both also stressed that they did not share any technical details. Blauwwind, a consortium including Shell and Eneco, said it shared regulatory reports on its “financial performance.”

HKZ’s communication with the Chinese bank is “strictly limited to information about the financing,” a spokesperson for the chemical company BASF Nederland, one of the wind farm’s major shareholders, told the newspaper. The bank is not receiving “critical details about the wind farm,” she said.