CCP Pressures Legislators From Multiple Countries to Skip Taiwan Summit

The Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China said the move by Beijing was ‘in a clear attempt to intimidate and dissuade them from traveling’ to the event.

British lawmakers Tim Loughton (L), Sir Iain Duncan Smith (C), and Stewart McDonald (R) during an IPAC press conference in London on March 25, 2024. Jordan Pettitt/PA Wire

Lawmakers from at least five countries say the Chinese communist regime pressured them not to participate in an annual China-related summit in Taiwan.

Eight lawmakers from Bolivia, Bosnia, Colombia, North Macedonia, and Slovakia were contacted by phone or email by diplomatic officials from the Chinese regime before their departures to Taiwan for the July summit. The officials also put forward urgent meeting requests that conflicted with the lawmakers’ travel plans.

Organizers of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC), said the move by Beijing was “a clear attempt to intimidate and dissuade them from traveling” to the event.

“The [People’s Republic of China’s] actions around IPAC’s Summit are yet another example of their brazen efforts to curtail other nations’ democratic privileges and negate Taiwan’s rights to engage in legitimate diplomatic exchanges,” the alliance said in a statement on July 28.

IPAC reported that some lawmakers found that their party leaders were contacted by Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials to assert more pressure. One legislator received an invitation to visit China instead of Taiwan.

IPAC, founded in 2020, is an international, cross-party alliance of legislators from democratic countries. It was established in response to the rising threat that China, under the CCP, poses to global trade, security, and human rights.

IPAC Director Luke de Pulford said that pressure from CCP officials on lawmakers has been unprecedented over the past couple of days. At past IPAC meetings in other locations, Chinese diplomats often approached them after the conference concluded. However, this year’s event, hosted in Taiwan for the first time, saw a coordinated effort by the CCP to prevent lawmakers from attending.

“As these interactions do not conform to the conduct of normal diplomatic relations between sovereign nations, IPAC members reserve the right to lodge formal representations and complaints with their respective Foreign Ministries,” the alliance said in its statement.

IPAC members frequently condemn the Chinese communist regime for its human rights violations and other issues, such as eroding Hong Kong’s freedom, lacking transparency over the COVID-19 pandemic, and targeting ethnic minority groups.

Mr. De Pulford responded to the CCP interference in a post on social media platform X on July 28. He tagged the Chinese regime’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, saying, “You don’t get to decide the travel plans of foreign politicians. Please leave us alone. Thanks.”

Kevin Vuong, a lawmaker from Canada, said in a July 28 social media post that the CCP “is used to getting its way through coercion & other acts of interference. But democracies are waking up to the threat.”

“The CCP believes that it can use pressure and coercion to stop democratically elected legislators from gathering,” Miriam M. Lexmann, a member of the European Parliament, wrote in a July 28 social media post, “We will not be deterred, nor will our commitment to working with our partners to defend freedom & democracy waver.”

IPAC said the conference was to begin on July 30, with nearly 50 lawmakers from more than 20 countries participating in the event, including Canada, Japan, and the UK.

IPAC said that in response to CCP intimidation, it’s welcoming six more countries into the alliance: Colombia, Iraq, Malawi, the Solomon Islands, the Gambia, and Uruguay.

The Chinese communist regime has long targeted IPAC, sanctioning some members in retaliation for their sanctions on CCP officials involved in the repression of Uyghurs.

In March, the Department of Justice (DOJ) indicted seven Chinese hackers for alleged involvement with the Chinese state-backed hacking group APT31. The DOJ accused them of spending about 14 years targeting U.S. and foreign critics, businesses, and lawmakers to advance Beijing’s economic espionage and foreign intelligence goals.

The hackers have allegedly targeted email accounts of IPAC lawmakers, including all IPAC members in the European Union, and 43 UK parliamentary accounts, most of which belonged to IPAC members or individuals who had been vocal against the CCP.

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said at the time, “This case serves as a reminder of the ends to which the Chinese government is willing to go to target and intimidate its critics, including launching malicious cyber operations aimed at threatening the national security of the United States and our allies.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.