IPAC Statement on Intimidation of IPAC Lawmakers by Representatives of the People's Republic of China

August 6, 2024
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We, the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China condemn the coercive measures—both direct and indirect—taken by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) against delegates to the IPAC Taipei Summit.

Peter Keniloria MP of the Solomon Islands, Miriam Lexmann MEP, of Slovakia, Catalin Tenita, MP, of Romania, Fatmir Bytyqi MP of North Macedonia, and Senator Centa Rek Lopez of Bolivia, among others, have been subjected to wholly inappropriate efforts by the PRC to limit their fundamental freedoms, both before, and after the Summit, held on 29-31 July 2024.

In addition, PRC spokespeople have issued several statements condemning IPAC, saying that our work on Taiwan is “external interference” which ”won’t be tolerated”.

Vibrant and active democracies are based on political freedoms that include the sharing and contesting of ideas in open discussion, unhindered political association, and the right to express political views without sanction or intimidation. These rights are enshrined in The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which the PRC is a signatory.

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 PRC will not succeed in its efforts to prevent us discussing their persistent and deliberate conflation of their “One China Principle” with the “One China Policies” of different countries around the world.

They will not succeed in preventing us from campaigning to raise awareness around their troubling efforts to distort UN Resolution 2758, and to re-write the history books to fit their current narrative regarding Taiwan.

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 is - and will remain - a place where like-minded legislators can come together, united in the belief that only by standing together in the context of an increasingly revisionist and authoritarian PRC, will democratic countries uphold the rules-based system and guarantee freedom and human rights for all.

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.

#StandTogether

Signed by delegates to #IPACTaipei24 and IPAC Members:

Representative Adi Kalem

Alexandru Muraru MP

Lord (David) Alton of Liverpool

Senator Barry Ward

Baroness (Natalie) Bennett

Bernard Guetta MEP

Boris Mijatovic MdB

Catalin Tenita MP

Senator Centa Rek Lopez

Representative Chen Gau Tsu

Chris Law MP

Senator David Fawcett

Senator Deborah O’Neill

Dovile Sakaliene MP

Senator Eduardo Nakayama

Councillor Elisabet Lann

Representative Eva Decroix

Representative Fan Yun

Fatmir Bytyqi MP

Fatmir Mediu MP

Frank Rosentritt MdB

Representative Gen Nakatani

Senator Gustavo Leite

Representative Hyato Okamura

Hugh McDermott MP

Representative Iain Amatong

Sir Iain Duncan Smith MP  

Ingrid Leary MP

Representative Ryohei Iwatani

Senator James Paterson

Jan Paternotte MP

Karsten Hønge MP

Kevin Vuong MP

Senator Malcolm Byrne

Marius Matijošaitis MP

Marie Rimmer MP

Michael Brand MdB

Senator Michael McDowell  

Miriam Lexmann MEP

Mykola Kniatsynski MP

Senator Olivier Cadic

Oleksandr Merezhko MP

Representative Otokita Shun

Senator Paola Holguin

Senator Pavel Fischer

Peter Keniloria MP

Reinhard Bütikofer

Senator Rufus Rodrigues

Sanela Klaric MP

Sandro Gozi MEP

Representative Shu Sakurai

Sujeet Kumar MP

Stewart McDonald

Timothy Loughton

Tom Van der Lee MP

Representative Toshitaka Ooka

Representative Yasue Fuayama

Yves Perron MP

Zygismantis Pavilionis MP

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