A Dutch political party competing in the upcoming European parliamentary elections has been found to have links to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), according to research conducted by media and investigative website Follow The Money.

The party in question, NL met een Plan, reportedly receives substantial financial backing from organizations that promote Beijing’s political agenda. Documents from Chinese language media reveal that the party has received a total of €42,000 in donations, a portion of which originates from the United Front network, an international organization operated by the CCP. Additional donations came from the national federation of Chinese organizations in the Netherlands (LFCON), the Dutch Chinese Chamber of Commerce, and Chinese media outlets in the Netherlands.

Kok Kuen Chan, the founder of NL met een Plan, outlines on the party’s Dutch website that their mission is to support the Dutch Chinese community and boost trade with China. However, media reports indicate a different narrative in Chinese language outlets. For instance, in an article published in United Times, a Chinese language newspaper in the Netherlands, the party declares its objective to “resist” what it describes as the “suppression of China by the EU/US and western countries.”

“The Dutch political party NL Plan is the only political party which ‘speaks out fairly’ for China,” the publication asserts.

Despite these connections and financial support, NL met een Plan’s prospects of securing one of the 31 Dutch seats in the European Parliament appear slim, as the party is not reflected in any opinion polls.

Wim Voermans, a constitutional law professor, commented to the media that there are currently no regulations regarding political donations for new parties in the Netherlands. “It is one of the vulnerabilities of the system,” he noted. “We’ve got a large rule-free zone which allows new parties to be influenced in all sorts of ways without being visible.”

The European parliamentary elections in the Netherlands are scheduled for June 6.