Taiwan hosts summit on China amid Beijing's pressure on global lawmakers not to attend summit focused on China

Parliamentarians from 35 countries, who are concerned about the attitude adopted by democratic countries towards Beijing, will participate in the summit organised here on Tuesday and Wednesday by the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC).

According to the ABC news outlet, diplomats from at least six countries — Bolivia, Colombia, Slovakia, North Macedonia, Bosnia and one Asian country — said they were being pressured by Chinese diplomats not to attend the summit in Taiwan, which they described as an “attempt to isolate the self-ruled island.”

Representatives from these countries said they had received “messages, calls and urgent requests” for meetings that would clash with their plans to visit Taipei.

In a statement, IPAC condemned China, accusing it of an “obvious attempt” to intimidate its members and prevent them from travelling to Taiwan.

“Some became aware that their party leadership had been contacted to exert additional pressure. One MP was specifically invited to travel to China instead of Taipei,” IPAC said.

According to Focus Taiwan, Chairman Lai Ching will also deliver a speech at the fourth annual summit of IPAC in Taipei.

The summit is being held against the backdrop of China's grey zone strategy and actions against the Taiwanese people in the Taiwan Strait, which China claims as its territory.

China frequently sends fighter jets and naval ships to surround the island nation as part of its grey zone strategy.

China conducted military exercises in the Taiwan Strait after Taiwan's newly elected President Lai took office.

“Cross-Strait stability” will be the top agenda at IPAC's upcoming summit, which will feature high-level contributions from the Taiwan 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 of supporting a united, tough international stance towards Chinese aggression.

Beijing has imposed sanctions on IPAC members since 2000, and in 2021 the group was targeted by Chinese state-sponsored hackers, according to a US indictment released earlier this year.

Meanwhile, the IPAC meeting comes at a time when members of the Quad grouping comprising 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.