Chinese Scholarship Council-sponsored Dutch PhD collaboration

Dutch engagement with the China Scholarship Council (CSC), a non-profit linked with the Chinese Ministry of Education, is examined in this research. This collaboration has been scrutinized in the Netherlands and elsewhere due to knowledge security concerns: CSC PhD students may facilitate undesirable knowledge transfer or other foreign interference activities, and Dutch knowledge institutes may be vulnerable to Chinese political pressure and geopolitical developments involving China due to their dependence on CSC PhD students. In addition, media reports about CSC students signing ‘loyalty pledges’ to the Chinese Communist Party and its programs have raised concerns about Chinese academic freedom violations.

This analysis estimates 2,197 Dutch CSC PhD students in 2023. Nearly half of this number researches crucial fields for China and the Netherlands. Despite these numbers, Dutch knowledge institutions depend little on CSC PhD students in strategic research fields. This research also examines CSC collaboration problems, hazards, and benefits, future advancements, and CSC collaboration in other European countries.

The paper makes many CSC partnership suggestions to the Dutch government. These include advising knowledge institutions, organizing national CSC talks, and urging Dutch knowledge institutions to diversify PhD scholarship financing and create contingency plans.

The research was commissioned by the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture, and Science (OCW) and supported by the MFA under the Dutch China Knowledge Network framework agreement.