China’s attempts to stop foreign parliamentarians from attending a meeting in Taiwan were “massively overstepping” acts of bullying, the organiser has said at the end of the gathering at which the group designed to counter China expanded.
The Inter-parliamentary Alliance on China (Ipac) held its fourth annual “summit” in Taipei this week, attended by about 50 parliamentarians from 23 countries.
The coalition is aimed at countering threats from China and shifting domestic China policies in members’ respective countries. This year’s location was always bound to annoy China’s ruling Communist party (CCP), which considers Taiwan to be its own territory. In the days leading up to the meeting, reports emerged of some delegates being contacted by Chinese diplomats in what they said was a “clear attempt to intimidate and dissuade” them from attending.
Luke de Pulford, executive director of Ipac, said some had received calls or demands for meetings scheduled at the same time as the meeting to “express to them why they shouldn’t wade into the Taiwan question”, or were offered trips to China instead, “as if they could be bought off”.
De Pulford said Beijing had only targeted countries “where they thought they could bully them”.
“I mean, it’s just really remarkably bullish stuff that’s seriously assertive, massively overstepping,” he told the Guardian. “They were all global south countries and I just think it’s a really shocking way to behave.”
Chinese ambassadors have called Ipac members in the past to demand that they remove their signatures from communiques. They have also been sanctioned or targeted by Chinese cyber-attacks.
Miriam Lexmann, a Slovak member of the European parliament, said she was among those targeted by local Chinese diplomatic officials.
“I was born into Communist Czechoslovakia and I remember this kind of behaviour when my relatives were called to Communist party headquarters, for intimidation and questioning because they wanted to travel abroad … or had concerns about the Communist regime,” Lexmann told the gathering.
On Tuesday afternoon, Ipac introduced new members from six additional parliaments, including from Taiwan for the first time and the Solomon Islands, which switched diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China in 2019.
Peter Keniloria, an opposition MP and son of Solomon Islands’ first prime minister, said his country’s decision created “complexities and challenges” that should be reversed.
“Historically, the relationship that once was held between the Solomons and Taiwan was strong and deeply rooted in partnership and mutual collaboration,” he said. “Nowadays I’m afraid I cannot say the same. I acknowledge the complexities and challenges that both our nations now face as a result of these actions, and state that it is my personal desire to see this relationship return to the strength that once was held.”
Ipac has been vocal in condemning the CCP’s human rights abuses in Xinjiang, and has lobbied in support of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement, in particular the jailed activist and media mogul, Jimmy Lai. It calls itself a “project for lawmakers by lawmakers”, to promote democracy and address threats to the rules-based and human rights systems posed by the rise of China.
On Tuesday the meeting endorsed plans to “curb PRC [People’s Republic of China] distortion of UN resolution 2758”. That resolution was passed in 1971, formally recognising the CCP-led PRC as “the only lawful representatives of China” at the UN, and expelling the Chiang Kai-shek-led government of the Republic of China (ROC).
Chinese officials and media frequently claim the resolution affirms the CCP’s one-China principle (which includes their claim over Taiwan), and use state media to attack analysts and others who dispute it. Taiwan’s government, analysts and others have accused the CCP of mischaracterising the resolution, which does not mention Taiwan or the ROC.
De Pulford said countering China’s mischaracterisation of the resolution was partly to address “thorny” topics that often turned people away from the issue of Taiwan.
“It’s very complicated. And for most people it just becomes like, ‘eh, it’s too complicated a territory to speak’.”
Two MPs from Taiwan also joined for the first time, in what the Guardian understands was a late announcement. One of the pair, Chao-Tzu Chen, was unclear on the details of the organisation but said the event was “in line with my philosophy”.
Bolivian opposition senator and the co-chair of the gathering, Cecelia Requena, told the Guardian there were major concerns about China’s influence over the Bolivian government, and commercial involvement in infrastructure building and environmentally destructive projects. She said China and Russia were taking control of resources in Latin America without much resistance, but local politicians were scared to push back.
“The way we relate to China has to be improved in order for our national interests to be respected,” Requena said.
In a statement, China’s foreign ministry told the Associated Press that it opposed any form of official exchanges between its diplomatic partners and Taiwan, and that Ipac had “no credibility”.
Additional reporting by Chi-hui Lin
