Date: 12 May
Time: 15.30-17.00
Location: Wijnhaven 2.17, Turfmarkt 99, 2511EP The Hague or online
‘China names Dutch spies online as Nexperia row lingers’; ‘The controversy over the collapsed China spy case explained’; ‘A former insider reveals how China spies on citizens at home and in the US’; and many more…
These are just a handful of recent headlines in the media. China is often accused of (industrial) espionage. How do these claims stand up to scrutiny?
Perhaps not too well. In the upcoming CKN Knowledge Session, China expert Fred Sengers argues that we often go too far in our fear of Chinese products and technology. Many concerns are actually phantom risks: they seem plausible at first glance, but upon closer inspection turn out not to exist. This distracts from where the real risks lie, fragments attention and resources, and leads to excluding Chinese products where it isn’t necessary at all.
Excluding Chinese tech also creates a false sense of security, because the danger of espionage or sabotage usually does not come from a factory floor, but from interconnectivity. State actors do not need a backdoor or kill switch; they exploit weaknesses and carelessness in their targets.
In the media, politics, and the security domain, however, this often leads to overreaction. People say we must not be naïve, or “better safe than sorry.” But in doing so, they ignore that the relationship also offers advantages or is sometimes simply unavoidable. Sengers developed a simple traffic light model to assess, on a case-by-case basis, where action is required. He tells a nuanced story that fewer and fewer people want to hear—but one they would do well to listen to.
