Lawmakers from 6 countries say Beijing is pressuring them not to attend the Taiwan conference
BEIJING: Lawmakers from at least six countries said Chinese diplomats were pressuring them not to attend a China-focused conference in Taiwan, in what they described as efforts to isolate the self-ruled island.
Politicians from Bolivia, Colombia, Slovakia, North Macedonia, Bosnia and an Asian country that declined to be named said they were receiving texts, calls and urgent requests for meetings that would conflict with their plans to travel to Taipei. China vehemently defends its claim to Taiwan and sees it as its own territory that will be annexed by force if necessary.
The conference starts on Monday and is organized by the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, or IPAC, a group of hundreds of lawmakers from 35 countries concerned about how democracies approach Beijing. IPAC has long faced pressure from the Chinese government: Some members have been sanctioned by Beijing, and in 2021 the group was targeted by Chinese state-sponsored hackers, according to a US indictment unsealed earlier this year.
But Luke de Pulford, director of the alliance, said the pressure from Chinese officials in recent days was unprecedented. During previous IPAC meetings in other locations, lawmakers were approached by Chinese diplomats only after they had concluded. This year, IPAC's first annual meeting in Taiwan, there appears to be a concerted attempt to stop attendees from attending.
The Associated Press spoke to three lawmakers and reviewed texts and emails sent by Chinese diplomats asking them if they planned to attend the meeting.
“I'm Wu from the Chinese Embassy,” read a message sent to Antonio Miloshoski, a member of parliament in North Macedonia. “I heard you received an invitation from IPAC, will you be attending the conference next week in Taiwan?”
In some cases, lawmakers described vague questions about their plans to travel to Taiwan. In other cases, the contact was more threatening: One lawmaker told the AP that Chinese diplomats texted her party chief with a request to stop her from leaving.
“They contacted the president of my political party, asked him to stop me from traveling to Taiwan,” said Sanela Klarić, a member of Bosnia's parliament. “In my country they are trying to stop me from traveling… This is really not right.”
China routinely threatens retaliation against politicians and countries that show support for Taiwan, which has only informal relations with most countries due to Chinese diplomatic pressure. Klarić said the pressure was unpleasant, but only strengthened his determination to go on the trip.
“I really fight against countries or societies where the tool to manipulate and control peoples is fear,” Klarić said, adding that it reminded him of the threats and intimidation he faced while suffering through the wars in Bosnia in the 1990s. “I really hate the feeling when someone scares you.”
The Chinese Foreign Ministry did not respond to a request for comment.
De Pulford called the pressure “gross foreign interference”.
“How would PRC officials feel if we tried to tell them about their travel plans, where they could and couldn't go?” said de Pulford, using the acronym for China's official name, the People's Republic of China. “It's absolutely outrageous that they think they can interfere with the travel plans of foreign lawmakers.”
MPs from 25 countries were expected to attend this year's meeting. Taiwan's foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Last week, Beijing criticized Taiwan for the annual Han Kuang military exercises, saying Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party was “making provocations to seek independence.”
“Any attempt to create tension and use force to seek independence or reject reunification is doomed to failure,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning.
China has poached the island's diplomatic allies, often with promises of development aid, in a long-standing competition between the two that has favored Beijing in recent years. The Pacific island nation of Nauru transferred recognition to Beijing earlier this year, a move that reduced Taiwan's dwindling number of diplomatic allies to 12.
But China's sometimes heavy-handed approach has also alienated other countries.
In 2021, Beijing downgraded relations and blocked imports from Lithuania, a member of both the EU and NATO, after the Baltic nation broke with diplomatic custom by agreeing to a Taiwanese representative office in its capital Vilnius to be named Taiwan instead of Chinese Taipei. , which other countries use to avoid offending Beijing. The following year, the EU passed a resolution criticizing Beijing's behavior towards Taiwan and took action against China at the World Trade Organization over import restrictions.
Pressure on the IPAC meeting also triggered backlash.
Bolivian Senator Centa Rek said she submitted a letter of protest after a Chinese diplomat called her and told her not to go to Taiwan, saying the island was ruled by a “impostor president” and that the meeting was hosted by a organization “not accepted within the terms of Mainland China's policy.” When Rek refused, the diplomat said he would report her decision to his embassy, which Rek interpreted as a “veiled threat”.
“I told him that this is unacceptable intrusion, that I will not accept an order or an intrusion from any government,” Rek said. “They were personal decisions and I felt it exceeded all international political norms.”
Most of the MPs targeted appear to be from smaller countries, which de Pulford, the alliance director, said was likely because Beijing “feels they can get away with it”. But he added that coercive tactics made participants more determined to take part in the summit.
Miriam Lexmann, a Slovak member of the European Parliament whose party leader was approached by Chinese diplomats, said the pressure underscored why she came to Taiwan.
We want to “exchange information, ways to deal with those challenges and threats that China poses to the democratic part of the world, and of course to support Taiwan,” she said.
