IPAC Criticizes Beijing for Intimidating Lawmakers After Summit in Taiwan

Taiwan's Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim speaks during a meeting of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) in Taipei on July 30, 2024. (Sam Yeh/AFP via Getty Images)

An international group of lawmakers has condemned communist China for using “direct and indirect” coercive measures against those who took part in a recent summit in Taiwan.

The Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC), an alliance of more than 200 lawmakers from 40 countries that focus on confronting the Chinese regime’s malign activities, such as human rights abuses, held a summit in Taipei at the end of July.

The event was attended by 49 IPAC members from 24 countries, marking the largest delegation of foreign parliamentary members to visit the self-ruled island.

Before the summit, the IPAC revealed that Beijing tried to stop IPAC members from traveling to Taiwan through coercion and other acts of interference. Some of those who went to the Taipei summit have since been targeted in their home countries by Chinese authorities.

IPAC listed several politicians, which it said were among those who “have been subjected to wholly inappropriate efforts by the PRC to limit their fundamental freedoms, both before, and after the Summit.”

The list includes politicians Peter Kenilorea of the Solomon Islands, Miriam Lexmann of Slovakia, Catalin Tenita of Romania, Fatmir Bytyqi of North Macedonia, and Senator Centa Rek Lopez of Bolivia, the IPAC said in a statement on Aug. 6.

“The PRC’s coordinated program of political interference and intimidation over recent days, directed specifically against delegates to the IPAC 2024 Summit, is a clumsy and openly coercive series of actions designed to limit engagement and dialogue between democratically elected representatives,” the group added, referring to China’s official name, the People’s Republic of China.

Beijing claims Taiwan as a part of its territory, even though the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has never ruled the island nation. The regime does not tolerate any government officials or foreign diplomats engaging with Taiwanese officials.

Only 12 countries—including Haiti, Guatemala, Paraguay, Palau, and Eswatini—recognize Taiwan as a state and have formal diplomatic relationships with it.

“Neither the PRC, nor any other country, has the right to threaten foreign lawmakers for having entirely legitimate discussions of international law and global prosperity, nor seek to curb the freedom of movement of democratically elected lawmakers,” IPAC stated.

“We stand resolutely with our colleagues against the PRC’s deplorable intimidation, and call upon our governments to spare no effort in protecting the freedoms of their parliamentarians, upon which the health of our democracies depend.”

CCP’s Coercion

The Solomon Islands government on July 31 issued a statement criticizing Peter Kenilorea, a leading opposition member of parliament (MP), for taking part in the summit. The South Pacific nation claimed that the trip was “an attempt to harm the Solomon Islands and the People’s Republic of China relations” and reiterated the CCP’s territorial claim over Taiwan.

“I find it regrettable that the government would even release a statement that my participation at a Summit of like-minded MPs and Senators from some 24 countries is seeking to harm Solomon Islands and the People’s Republic of China,” Kenilorea said in a statement published by local newspaper Solomon Star on Aug. 3.

“Instead of harming Solomon Islands, the summit looked at ways that we as concerned MPs of the IPAC network can continue to spread the message in our respective Parliaments about perils any unilateral change to the Taiwan strait relations could bring,” he added.

The Solomon Islands used to be a diplomatic ally of Taiwan before the government headed by then-Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare decided to end the relationship and switched diplomatic ties to China in 2019.

Canada’s Independent MP Kevin Vuong, who participated in the summit, took to the X platform to say he stood in solidarity with Kenilorea while sharing a photo of the two parliamentarians.

“As democracies, we must #StandTogether against those who would interfere in our freedom of movement & work,” Vuong wrote on Aug. 6.

On July 31, the Chinese Embassy in Romania sent a letter to the local Renewing Romania’s European Project (REPER) party, of which Catalin Tenita is a member. According to a translation of the letter provided by IPAC, the Chinese Embassy named Tenița and wanted the party leadership to “take concrete measures to control the behavior of certain members.”

The letter also told the party leadership to “not conduct official exchanges or contacts in any form with Taiwan,” asserting that official interactions “are not in favor of the development of bilateral China-Romania relations.”

Tenita responded by saying that he stands firm in his engagement with Taiwan, saying his position aligns “fully with those of the European Union,” according to a statement published on the X platform on Aug. 6.

“I intend to foster long-term cooperative relationships with municipalities and authorities in Taiwan, particularly in areas such as public service provision and sustainable urban development,” Tenita wrote.

“I believe it is in Romania’s interest to establish bilateral trade and cultural representations in Taipei and Bucharest, as well as to enhance conditions for access and conduct of commercial activities,” he added.

The CCP’s coercion tactics also reached Sweden.

Elisabet Lann, a municipal councilor in Sweden’s city of Gothenburg and a member of the Christian Democrats (KD) party, also participated in the Taipei summit.

According to an article published by the Swedish newspaper Expressen on Aug. 6, the local Chinese consulate had emailed a KD leader, requesting a meeting to “coordinate the behavior of party members.”