The Clingendael China Centre’s coordinator and senior researcher, Ingrid D’Hooghe, thinks there will be a cost associated with China’s scientific decoupling.
The Clingendael China Centre’s coordinator and senior researcher, Ingrid D’Hooghe, thinks there will be a cost associated with China’s scientific decoupling.
The Dutch intelligence services AIVD and MIVD have identified China as the greatest threat to the Netherlands in terms of stealing cutting-edge knowledge and technologies.
Universities and researchers find it difficult to assess what can be done and what cannot be done in the area of collaborative science due to China’s academic climate deteriorating during the COVID years. As a result, universities and researchers no longer collaborate, according to a survey conducted by the newspaper Trouw last week.
This fashion can be very expensive. Protection of scientific integrity and knowledge is necessary, but severing our scientific ties with China will have a negative impact on our country’s standing in technology and innovation abroad.
Additionally, it will further limit our ability to comprehend developments in China, a major player in the economy, politics, and sciences that we cannot ignore. We require knowledge of and collaboration with China more than ever.
Therefore, decoupling with China is the worst possible option for fostering scientific collaboration .China is a global leader in many scientific fields, including biotechnology, 5G and 6G, nanomaterials, and electric batteries.
It is the second-largest investor in scientific research after the US, and has a large pool of natural science students and researchers. If we ignore or exclude these Chinese scientists, we will fall further behind in technological advancements.
China is reportedly in the lead in 37 out of 44 important technologies, according to the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI).
However, a lot of Dutch and international interests are served by Chinese collaboration projects. Chinese knowledge and expertise are used in joint research projects that advance social welfare and science in the Netherlands. In other fields, it is crucial to combine high-caliber Chinese and Dutch knowledge in order to fully address global challenges.
The continuation of research collaboration and knowledge exchange between Chinese and Dutch researchers is crucial. However, it is challenging to guarantee a strong and beneficial partnership with minimal strategic, moral, and security risks.
Minister Robbert Dijkgraaf talks about individualised strategies and taking a strenuous middle ground between total openness on the one hand and suffocating closure on the other.
There is a large grey area where technological advancements are occurring so quickly that what we now deem safe today may be used in military applications tomorrow.
By establishing the National Knowledge Security Guidelines, the Contact Point for Knowledge Security, and the Screening Knowledge Security Act, which aim to screen people who want to conduct research in delicate technological fields, the Netherlands is setting the bar for Europe. Universities are cooperating to spread knowledge of the dangers.
Financial separation from China must be established; research in the Netherlands must be funded with equal financial contributions from all parties; and real action must be taken to ensure academic integrity and freedom. Not enough has been said about this.
Political flexibility is needed to take into account Dutch strategic interests in science, technology, and innovation when looking at scientific cooperation with China. Otherwise, the chances of resolving societal and global issues and maintaining the Dutch nation’s leadership in science and technology may deteriorate.