The best way to counter Beijing’s attempts to shrink Taiwan’s international space is by demonstrating the world’s openness to Taiwan and that Taiwanese are welcome to participate in all kinds of activities, Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) co-founder and executive director Luke de Pulford said.
President William Lai’s (賴清德) recent visit to the Kingdom of Eswatini was temporarily suspended due to apparent pressure from China, and at the time, a major foreign media outlet reported that Germany and the Czech Republic rejected requests for Lai to fly through or transit via their countries due to concerns about a possible backlash from Beijing.
During De Pulford’s visit to Taiwan, he discussed in an interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) how he sees China’s increasing diplomatic coercion against European countries and how he thinks those countries should respond.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
Beijing is trying to restrict Taiwan’s international space, aiming its efforts not only at the government, but also at the Taiwanese people, he said.
Citing the abrupt cancelation of RightsCon — a global digital human rights conference originally scheduled to be held in Zambia early last month — as an example, de Pulford said no Taiwanese government officials were scheduled to attend the event.
While only Taiwanese civil society members had planned to participate, the event was still canceled under pressure from Beijing, he said.
The best way to counter Chinese pressure is to show that the world remains open to Taiwan, signaling a clear welcome for Taiwanese to participate in all kinds of events, de Pulford said, adding that gradual exclusion of Taiwanese from international conferences and the silencing of their voices cannot be tolerated.
The IPAC is firmly committed to ensuring that doors remain wide open to all sectors of Taiwanese society, he said.
Although IPAC members have limited leverage as parliamentarians, they are dedicated to using every means available to show that Taiwan is welcome, raise public awareness of Beijing’s actions and continue to extend invitations to high-level Taiwanese government officials, he said.
Meanwhile, he said IPAC has kept its doors open to the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), but expressed regret that the party has not engaged.
Citing an example of a recent visit to London by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) of the KMT, he said Han requested not to meet with IPAC during the trip. However, that was difficult to avoid, given that many lawmakers active on Taiwan-related issues and supportive of the nation are members of IPAC, he said.
The IPAC held its annual summit in Taipei in July 2024, where it announced Taiwan as an official member of the alliance and Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Fan Yun (范雲) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Legislator Chen Chao-tzu (陳昭姿) as Taiwan’s co-chairs.
The IPAC is an international organization composed of parliamentarians worldwide, and official admission into the alliance requires co-chairs from different political factions, so Taiwan could not join before 2024 as the opposition KMT and TPP had been unwilling to participate.
While goodwill has long been lacking between IPAC and the KMT, the group remains open to engaging with the party, de Pulford said.
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