Taiwan hosts China-focused summit amidst Beijing pressure on global lawmakers not to attend

Amidst intimidation tactics by China, Taiwan on Monday welcomed a group of parliamentarians from around the world for an annual China-focused summit, the country’s central news agency reported.

The summit set to be held here on Tuesday and Wednesday by the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) will see participation by lawmakers of 35 countries concerned about how democracies approach Beijing.

Diplomats from at least six countries- Bolivia, Colombia, Slovakia, North Macedonia, Bosnia and one Asian country–said they were being pressurised by Chinese diplomats not to attend the summit in Taiwan, in what they described as “efforts to isolate the self-governed island,” the ABC News outlet said.

Representatives of these countries said that they got “texts, calls and urgent requests” for meetings that would conflict with their plans to travel to Taipei.

IPAC in a statement, condemned China for their alleged “clear attempt to intimidate and dissuade” its members from travelling to Taiwan.

“Some discovered their party leadership had been contacted to exert additional pressure. One lawmaker was specifically invited to travel to China rather than to Taipei,” IPAC said.

According to Focus Taiwan, the fourth annual summit of IPAC in Taipei will also see President Lai Ching to deliver an address at the event.

The summit is being held in the backdrop of Chinese increasingly deploying grey zone tactics in the Taiwan Strait and against the people of Taiwan, which China claims as part of its territory.

China frequently sends fighter jets and navy ships to encircle the island country as part of its grey zone tactics.

After Taiwan’s newly elected President Lai assumed office China had conducted military exercises in the Taiwanese Strait.

“Cross-strait stability” will top the agenda of the upcoming summit of the IPAC with high-level contributions from the Taiwanese government and world-leading experts, the group said in a statement.

IPAC was founded in 2020 by former UK politician Iain Duncan Smith as a means to endorse an internationally united, tougher stance towards Chinese aggression.

Since 2000, Beijing has sanctioned IPAC members, and in 2021 the group was targeted by Chinese state-sponsored hackers, according to a US indictment unsealed earlier this year.

Meanwhile, the IPAC meeting is being held as members of the Quad grouping of Australia, India, the United States and Japan met in Tokyo and issued a joint statement criticising China’s increasingly aggressive behaviour in both the South China Sea and the East China Sea.