“Why Dutch municipalities are canceling sister city relationships with China”

The Chinese sister city is no longer so popular with Dutch municipalities. In the past two years, at least eight municipalities and two provinces have canceled their formal friendship with a Chinese counterpart. That is about a quarter of all administrative bodies that have partnerships with Chinese governments. Many other municipalities put their cooperation on the back burner, are preparing for a final break or have already let the friendship fade to such an extent that there is hardly any cooperation anymore. This is evident from an inventory of NRC.

‘Sister cities’ or ‘ties of friendship’ are often formal collaborations between cities, for example in the field of trade and cultural exchange, for example by organizing trade missions to the regions or cities with which they cooperate.

Breda, Tilburg, Eindhoven and Arnhem, among others, have canceled friendships after city councils spoke out against it. They often referred to the oppression of the Uyghurs, who are persecuted and imprisoned in camps by the Chinese government. “We must respect the principles of democracy, the rule of law, freedom of the press and expression,” says Arnhem mayor Ahmed Marcouch, who broke with the Chinese city of Wuhan in 2021. “By whitewashing a relationship with a Chinese city, you create the appearance that you don’t.”

For Weert and Capelle aan den IJssel, among others, the lack of economic benefits is reason to break ties. Municipalities that say they are ‘rethinking’ their ties often want to focus on more friendships with European cities.

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The canceled friendships are a concrete example of the political ‘decoupling’ between the West and China, says Clingendael expert Ties Dams, who researched the ties between Dutch and Chinese cities. The Netherlands wants to “reduce its dependence on China” and, according to him, is under “great geopolitical pressure to decouple China”. However, Chinese Vice President Han Zheng is visiting the Netherlands these days.

For China, the collaborations primarily served a geostrategic purpose

Trade missions

The friendships often came about at the beginning of this century. Dutch administrative bodies saw opportunities for local entrepreneurs in emerging China and organized trade missions to Chinese cities of millions. As a result, formal collaborations were often established. Municipalities often saw this primarily as a humanitarian goal: Chinese cities were helped forward and mutual understanding was promoted.

For China, the collaborations served a geostrategic purpose, says Dams: strengthening its own economy and state. The collaborations with European cities are coordinated from a central organization that is affiliated with the Chinese government. Chinese cities that wanted to focus on specific developments, such as greenhouse horticulture, sought cooperation with Dutch municipalities that are strong in this. Dams: “Industries prioritized by the government come to the fore in the town twinning.”

Read the backstory: The Chinese sister city has fallen out of favour

Thanks to these collaborations, Chinese governments and companies regularly got an extensive look behind the scenes at Dutch government organizations and companies, including the chip industry around Eindhoven. “That was not necessarily done insidiously, but often openly.”

City ties p. 4-5

A version of this article also appeared in the May 8, 2023 newspaper.