September 8, 2023: 50 legislators from 25 countries met in Prague for a two-day general Summit of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) on September 1, 2023. The core focus of the Summit was on policy workshops around six thematic areas related to China: Taiwan, renewable dependency, transnational repression, Hong Kong, Belt and Road, and human rights. The Summit adopted and released its Prague Communique which outlines the planned IPAC actions on the six thematic areas.
On Taiwan, IPAC members resolved to take a number of actions including pushing their respective “governments to agree coordinated economic and political measures – including meaningful sanctions – to deter PRC military escalation and safeguard the global economy.”
Actions to counter China’s transnational repression included campaigning “for targeted sanctions against PRC perpetrators of transnational repression, in particular the leading individuals within the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the Ministry for Public Security” and holding “public hearings with key people across government departments and groups targeted by PRC-perpetrated transnational repression – improving local understanding and monitoring responses.”
Resolutions on Hong Kong included securing “parliamentary debates and host meetings with key people from the business and diaspora communities to raise awareness” in their legislatures, and “consideration of Hong Kong in relevant United Nations reviews.” The legislators resolved to push their governments “to suspend any preferential status enjoyed by
Hong Kong government arising from its past political and regulatory distinction from China, including in regard to representative membership of international bodies and the status of Hong Kong Economic and Trade Offices (HKETOs).”
On human rights, IPAC resolved to push their “governments to exert sustained pressure upon Beijing to allow unhindered fact-finding visits by competent bodies” and “secure debates and meetings with key people about Tibet and the findings of the Uyghur Tribunal, which judged the PRC to be responsible for genocide and crimes against humanity.”
IPAC is an international cross-party group of legislators working towards reform on how democratic countries approach China. It is made up of global legislators and led by a group of co-chairs, who are senior politicians drawn from a representative cross-section of the world’s major political parties.
For More:
IPAC Prague Communique 2023
