China Knowledge Network
The Dutch China Knowledge Network (CKN) is a network established to connect China experts and disseminate knowledge within the government of the Netherlands and beyond.
#46 Understanding China's Export Controls
#45 China's Drive for Food Sovereignty: Navigating Opportunities and Risks in Sino-Dutch Agrifood Collaboration
#44 A Matter of Principle: China's Developing Country Status in International Climate Negotiations
Latest Reports
Latest News and Events
Subscribe to the China Knowledge Network Newsletter
Stay in the loop with our latest reports, upcoming events and knowledge session invitations. You’ll receive:
Fresh insights from our latest research reports
Event alerts for CKN presentations, seminars and conferences
Invitations to knowledge sessions and CKN report presentations
Latest CKN Knowledge Sessions Recordings
From China with Love?
China is often accused of (industrial) espionage. How do these claims stand up to scrutiny? Perhaps not too well. In this CKN Knowledge Session, China expert Fred Sengers argued 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.
The 15th Five-Year Plan
China’s new five-year plan for 2026–2030 has been unveiled, marking a key moment in the country’s economic and political trajectory. In this China Knowledge Network (CKN) Knowledge Session, Sense Hofstede examined what the new five-year plan means in substance and in process. Answering the questions: What exactly is a five-year plan? How does it move from a high-level blueprint adopted in Beijing to concrete policy through layers of local implementation?
Latest CKN Report Presentations
Understanding China's Export Controls
Export controls have evolved into key tools to maintain strategic economic advantages amid great-power competition. Within this development, China plays a key role as both a target of export controls, and increasingly as a proactive user of export controls itself. This report offers an in-depth analysis of China's legal framework, institutional structures, evolving rationale, and historical development in this domain.
China's Developing Country Status in International Climate Negotiations
China presents two faces to Europe in climate diplomacy. On the one hand, cooperation between the EU and China is essential for accelerating the global energy transition and reducing fossil-fuel dependencies. On the other hand, a key point of tension stands in the way: China’s unyielding adherence to its developing country status in forums such as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). While the EU increasingly challenges this status on principled grounds, China defends it as a matter intrinsic to sovereignty, identity, and geopolitical positioning.
Latest CKN Interviews
Guangyu Qiao-Franco and Rogier Creemers on Understanding China's Export Controls
Dr Guangyu Qiao-Franco is Assistant Professor of International Relations at Radboud University. Her research focuses on China, AI in warfare, the strategic use of export controls, and techno-nationalist statecraft. Dr Rogier Creemers is Assistant Professor of Modern Chinese Studies at Leiden University. He leads projects on China’s digitalisation and the global impact of Chinese digital policy, with a focus on cybersecurity, smart state development, and digital governance.
Gadi Rothenberg on China's hydrogen ambitions and clean energy competition
Prof. dr. Gadi Rothenberg is Professor of Heterogeneous Catalysis and Sustainable Chemistry at the University of Amsterdam and Distinguished Visiting Professor at Tsinghua University. Based at the Van ’t Hoff Institute for Molecular Sciences, his research focuses on developing new catalysts and sustainable energy applications. Rothenberg’s work bridges science, industry and policy, with a strong focus on how technological innovation can contribute to a cleaner and more sustainable world.