Marije Vlaskamp, a reporter for the Volkskrant, claims that she has been the target of serious threats and harassment since the fall of last year. These incidents allegedly include bomb threats made in her name against the Chinese embassy in The Hague and other locations. She wrote in English and Dutch for the Saturday issue of the Volkskrant that a Dutch journalist had received threats via Telegram demanding that she retract an article critical of China. The Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded by saying it had questioned China on the intimidating actions.
The individual who sent the threats claimed to represent the interests of the Chinese State, but neither the newspaper nor the police have been able to determine who is behind it. Vlaskamp worked as a correspondent in China from 2001 to 2019 and is now a foreign editor for the Volkskrant. She frequently publishes articles that are critical of the Chinese government and touch on taboo topics like the persecution of the Uyghur people and the work of Chinese dissidents in the Netherlands.
Wang Jingyu is one of these dissenters.
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Vlaskamp has penned numerous pieces centered on the 21-year-old she met in 2021. While still in high school, Wang “came into trouble in China in 2019 for sending critical tweets on Hong Kong and other politically sensitive themes,” she explained. He and his girlfriend were able to evade capture by leaving the country. Over two years ago, the two people landed in the Netherlands seeking asylum. It was clear from my story that Beijing was also making the young activist’s life difficult in the West.
Threatening messages
Vlaskamp claims that in October, he began receiving threatening messages via Telegram from an individual going by the handle “Alice.” You vile traitor, I command you to keep your lips quiet. One of the letters warned that the recipient would be arrested if they continued to exert their influence on anti-Chinese media. One day you will have to take the punishment for what happened to your parents. Even the anti-Chinese journalists won’t have a happy ending.
In another communication, the sender threatened that with only one tip, the police would come and arrest them both. The timing of the letter and the purported bomb threat at the Chinese embassy was coordinated. Vlaskamp and Jingyu got, almost simultaneously, confirmations of hotel bookings made in their names for a location convenient to the embassy that they had not made.
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This seemingly innocuous email from Booking.com sets in motion a convoluted and occasionally weird intimidation campaign that forces me to ride a harrowing Chinese roller coaster. She continued, “My editors at the newspaper, the Dutch police, and I am all getting front row seats to this show of how the Chinese operate if they wish to quiet people regarding problems to which the Chinese one-party State does not want to draw attention.” Neither the destination nor the driver is known to us at this time. And the driver will do everything it takes to maintain it that way.
On October 15 police responded, closing off sections of The Hague as they investigated. After Jingyu spent a day going through his narrative with police, he told Vlaskamp, “It seems weird, but the Chinese embassy has actually called the police about a bomb and gave our names.” Vlaskamp had worked with Chinese ambassadors on numerous occasions and had a positive working relationship with them, so the absurdity of the situation made her laugh aloud.
Vlaskamp wrote, “Over the nearly quarter century that I’ve been working as a China correspondent, I’ve learned enough to know how the Chinese operate if they want someone to quiet up.” “But I am also astonished. To my knowledge, this sort of harsh treatment of Western journalists is unusual. They make no attempt to hide the fact that they are Chinese nationals posing a threat to me.
China’s response
The Foreign Ministry has demanded answers from China about the threats and intimidation directed at the journalist. A representative for the ministry acknowledged that they had contacted the Chinese embassy in the Netherlands over this matter.
The government instituted a “This widespread threat to a dissident and a journalist is quite concerning. This Cabinet is firmly opposed to any and all forms of unwanted foreign meddling and is dedicated to protecting journalists and human rights defenders around the world. It is unacceptable that this kind of intimidation occurs in the Netherlands.”
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It’s another thing that’s produced tension between the Netherlands and China recently. The Dutch government has recently imposed export restrictions on the country’s tech sector, making it extremely difficult for ASML to ship cutting-edge semiconductor fabrication equipment to China. An espionage strategy aimed at Dutch tech employees allegedly involved state actors, and according to one Dutch intelligence agency, China was reportedly involved in a conspiracy to utilize smartphones to spy on Dutch enterprises.
Secret Chinese police stations have been accused of operating illegally in both Amsterdam and Rotterdam. Authorities in the Netherlands are increasingly worried about threats from both China and Russia, they said a month after the Chinese embassy bomb scare, and more and more politicians, agencies, and government offices are prohibiting the installation of the social media app TikTok on phones used for work.
This decision was prompted by recommendations from Dutch intelligence services worried about the app’s parent business, ByteDance, being too influenced by the Chinese government.