BEIJING (AP) — Lawmakers from at least six countries are pressuring Chinese diplomats not to attend a China-focused conference in Taiwan, saying it is an attempt to isolate the island.
Politicians in Bolivia, Colombia, Slovakia, North Macedonia, Bosnia and one Asian country who declined to be named said they had received text messages, phone calls and urgent requests for meetings that could clash with their travel plans to Taipei. China strongly defends its claim to Taiwan and considers it its own territory to annex by force if necessary.
The conference begins Monday and is being organized by the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (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 of its members have been sanctioned by Beijing, according to a U.S. indictment unsealed earlier this year, and the group was targeted by Chinese government-backed hackers in 2021.
But the coalition’s president, Luke de Pulford, said the pressure from Chinese officials in recent days was unprecedented. At past IPAC meetings elsewhere, Chinese diplomats only approached lawmakers after the conference had ended. This year marks the first time IPAC’s annual conference has been held in Taiwan, but there appeared to be a coordinated attempt to block delegates from attending.
The Associated Press spoke to the three lawmakers and reviewed text messages and emails from Chinese diplomats asking whether they planned to attend the meeting.
“I’m Wu from the Chinese embassy,” read the message sent to North Macedonian member of parliament Antonio Milošovski. “I heard you received an invitation from IPAC. Would you be willing to attend their conference in Taiwan next week?”
Lawmakers say they’ve received vague inquiries about their plans to travel to Taiwan, but also more threatening contact: One lawmaker told The Associated Press that Chinese diplomats had sent a message to the leader of her own party demanding that she block the trip.
“They have contacted the head of my political party, asking them to block me from going to Taiwan,” Bosnian member of parliament Sanela Klaric said. “They are in my own country, trying to block my travel… This is really unacceptable.”
China regularly threatens retaliation against politicians and countries that support Taiwan. Chinese diplomatic pressure has left Taiwan with only informal ties with most countries. Kralik said the pressure was uncomfortable but strengthened his resolve to go on the trip.
“I’m really fighting against a country and a society that uses fear to manipulate and control people,” Klaric said, adding that it reminded her of the threats and intimidation she faced while suffering through the war in Bosnia in the 1990s. “I really hate the feeling that someone is threatening me.”
China’s Foreign Ministry did not respond to a request for comment.
De Pulford called the pressure “gross foreign interference”.
“How would they feel if we were trying to tell Chinese officials their travel plans, where they can and can’t go,” de Pulford said, using the initials 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.”
Lawmakers from 25 countries, including Japan, India and Britain, are expected to attend this year’s conference, and IPAC said in a statement that some of them will meet with Taiwanese officials. Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Last week, Beijing criticised Taiwan’s annual Han Kuang military drills, saying the island’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party was “provoking pro-independence”.
“Any attempt to incite tensions and use force to demand independence or reject unification is doomed to fail,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Mao Ning told reporters.
China has often cut off Taiwan’s diplomatic allies with promises of development aid, and the long-running rivalry between the two countries has tilted in Beijing’s favor in recent years. The Pacific island nation of Nauru changed its recognition to Beijing earlier this year, reducing the number of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies to 12.
But China’s sometimes heavy-handed approach has also alienated other countries.
In 2021, China soured relations with Lithuania, both an EU and NATO member, blocking imports after the Baltic nation broke diplomatic convention and agreed to name Taiwan’s mission in the capital, Vilnius, “Taiwan” instead of “Chinese Taipei,” a name other countries use to avoid angering China. The following year, the EU passed a resolution condemning China’s actions toward Taiwan and took action against China at the World Trade Organization over the import restrictions.
Pressure surrounding the IPAC meeting also sparked backlash.
Bolivian senator Senta Lek said Chinese diplomats had called her not to go to Taiwan, filing a letter of protest, saying the island was run by a “fake president” and the meeting was hosted by an organization that was “not acceptable within the framework of mainland Chinese policy.” When Lek refused, the diplomats said they would report her decision to their embassies, which Lek interpreted as an “implicit threat.”
“I told him that this was an unacceptable intrusion and that I would not accept orders or intrusions from any government,” Lek said. “This was a personal decision and it seemed to me that he had acted beyond any international political norms.”
Most of the targeted lawmakers appear to be from smaller countries, and alliance chief de Pulford said that was probably because Beijing “feels it cannot be punished”, but he added that the coercive tactics had only made participants more determined to attend the summit.
Miriam Lexmann, a Slovakian member of the European Parliament who was contacted by Chinese diplomats, said the pressure highlighted her reasons for coming to Taiwan.
“We want to exchange information and look at ways to address the challenges and threats that China poses to democracies around the world, and of course support Taiwan,” she said.
