IPAC Says China Has Put Pressure on Members To Withdraw

TaiwanPlus News

Lawmakers from several countries have withdrawn from the international Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China after facing pressure from Beijing, the group's executive director has said.

Transcript

00:00The Interparliamentary Alliance on China, an international network of lawmakers working

00:04to address China's global threats, has been facing pressure from Beijing.

00:09The coalition's head says China is particularly focused on IPAC initiatives supportive of

00:13Taiwan and that its pushback has had results.

00:16Taiwan itself is such a, I'm going to say, lightening rod for Beijing, that anything

00:25which touches this question causes major pushback.

00:29I'll give you an example.

00:32We have now lost three countries from IPAC because of this.

00:37Malawi, the Gambia and the Solomon Islands.

00:41DePolford says China has pressured lawmakers from those three countries to withdraw.

00:46He says Beijing threatened to cancel a trip the president of Malawi was scheduled to take

00:50to China if the country didn't force its lawmakers to leave the alliance and that it demanded

00:54that lawmakers from the Solomon Islands withdraw from IPAC and give statements supporting

00:59its One China principle, which says Taiwan is a part of China.

01:03Before the IPAC's annual meeting last year in Taipei, DePolford says China contacted lawmakers

01:09from over 10 countries, pressuring them not to attend.

01:12None of the three countries responded to requests for comment from Taiwan Plus and neither did

01:17China's foreign ministry.

01:18IPAC has voiced strong support for Taiwan.

01:21It recently invited the country's vice president, Bi Kim Xiao, to give a speech at a meeting

01:26held in the European Parliament.

01:28That was a huge deal for Taiwan.

01:30The alliance has also passed Taiwan-related resolutions.

01:33One, opposing China's distortion of a historical UN decision which it says bolsters its claims

01:39to Taiwan.

01:40And the other, against any unilateral changes to the cross-strait status quo.

01:45IPAC's director says the departure of some lawmakers from IPAC shows just how much pressure countries

01:51and organizations supportive of Taiwan are under.

01:54China has long fought to squash any international support for Taiwan, and incidents like this

01:59show how it's doing this, as well as how far it will go to isolate Taiwan.

02:03Luffy Lee and Cadence Quaranta for Taiwan Plus.

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended