The Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) is an international, cross-party alliance of parliamentarians, mostly from liberal democratic countries, focused on relations with the People's Republic of China (PRC), and specifically, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). It was established on June 4, 2020, on the anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre. The alliance comprises over 290 members from 43 legislatures and the European Parliament. Each legislature represented takes turns to chair the alliance on a rotating basis. Its purpose is to create a coordinated response to China on global trade, security and human rights.
History Founding
In its founding statement, the alliance stated that "countries that have tried to stand up to Beijing have mostly done so alone — and often at great cost." Many of those who first signed the declaration have been affected by overseas censorship of Chinese issues in recent years. Co-chair James Paterson and member Andrew Hastie were banned from visiting China after meeting with Uyghur dissidents and writing about the threat of China to Australian democracy. Germany's co-chair Michael Brand experienced "massive pressure" to delete comments about Tibet and later had a travel ban imposed on him. Canadian parliamentarians joined the alliance after the CCP restricted imports on some Canadian goods and detained Canadians nationals Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig after Canada arrested Meng Wanzhou on charges of fraud. Belgium co-chair Samuel Cogolati being the subject of cyber attack by a Chinese state actor, after writing a resolution on Uyghur Muslims in China, and Els Van Hoof being warned by China not to visit Taiwan. Sweden's co-chair Fredrik Malm spoke at a solidarity rally for Hong Kong in September 2019. Some weeks later China's Ambassador to Sweden, Gui Congyou addressed Swedish listeners and said, "We treat our friends with fine wine, but for our enemies we have shotguns." This type of intimidating language is one of the features of China's new generation of "wolf warrior diplomats." Despite this intimidation, many representatives from the world's democracies wish to maintain their "long-standing concerns over human rights and trade practices".
COVID-19 and Hong Kong
Two contemporaneous events triggered the formation of the alliance: China's initial attempt to suppress news of what eventually became the COVID-19 pandemic and Beijing's plan to criminalize dissent in the semi-autonomous territory of Hong Kong.
China's "lack of transparency over the COVID-19 pandemic" meant that many democratic nations felt compelled to confront the CCP. When Australia moved to hold China accountable for its actions, or inactions, around the outbreak first detected in Wuhan, China quickly imposed new tariffs on Australian barley and outright bans on some of its beef, then went on to warn Chinese citizens against traveling to the country. Conservative Canadian MP and co-chair, Garnett Genuis said, "We don’t want to be in a situation where individual countries are targeted and isolated one at a time."
Beijing's plans to criminalise dissent, became the final impetus for the new alliance. Baroness Kennedy condemned "unilateral introduction of national security legislation in Hong Kong" Kennedy, a Labour Party member of the House of Lords, would later reach out to form the permanent alliance with Conservative MP Iain Duncan Smith. Joining them came US Republican Senator Marco Rubio and Democratic Senator Bob Menendez, both longtime critics of the CCP and key supporters of US legislation targeting China over its actions against Hong Kong's autonomy.
In short, the emergence of the alliance indicates "there is growing backlash against China’s increasing assertiveness.” In view of the human rights abuses and the intimidation of democratic nations, democratic legislators such as Reinhard Bütikofer felt they "cannot return to business as normal." For many, this decision came with a sense of shame that the free world had been "naive" in its approach to China, that, as Duncan Smith put it, there had been an "unfounded" hope that free markets would lead Beijing to democratic reforms.
2021 email hack In 2021, an advanced persistent threat group associated with the Hubei State Security Department in Wuhan, APT31, targeted the emails of every European Union IPAC member and 43 United Kingdom parliamentary accounts. In March 2024, the United States Department of Justice indicted seven Chinese nationals affiliated with APT31. The UK government and the United States Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) jointly sanctioned a Chinese Ministry of State Security front company called Wuhan Xiaoruizhi Science and Technology and affiliated individuals linked to APT31 for breaching the UK Electoral Commission and placing malware in critical infrastructure.
2024 Taiwan summit and pressure campaign In July 2024, lawmakers from at least six countries received various forms of electronic communications from Chinese diplomats pressuring them not to attend the first IPAC summit in Taiwan. At the summit, IPAC lawmakers agreed on a resolution to counter China's interpretation of United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2758 (XXVI) in their home country legislatures. During the summit, Taiwan officially became a member of IPAC.
Focus
The alliance sees China's relationship to the world, at least under Communist Party general secretary Xi Jinping, as being a threat to many democratic values. Overall, the group aims "to help counter what they say is the threat China’s growing influence poses to global trade, security and human rights." The Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China focuses on:
International rules-based order In the aftermath of World War II global institutions were formed, chiefly the United Nations, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund so that international questions, from trading arrangements to the recognition of territorial borders, are settled according to agreed rules, rather than mere force. Members of the alliance, such as Mike Gallagher of the United States, are concerned that China is undermining the rules based order, with, for example, "illegitimate efforts to build and militarize islands in the region."
Human rights Many members are driven by their concern for what they see as China's "egregious human rights violations". — to use the phrase of British member, David Alton — especially towards its own minority groups, particularly Uyghurs and Tibetan people. Canadian member Dan Albas has expressed concerns about the Chinese Government's "crackdowns on legitimate protests and concentration camps for Uighur Muslims." Similarly, Fabian Molina has moved in the Swiss legislature that "Stop crimes against humanity in Xinjiang or suspend free trade with China." Founding co-chair Baroness Kennedy has a particular concern for the poor treatment of lawyers and human rights defenders in China. Some members are hopeful that new instruments for holding China to account on its human rights abuses will emerge. Lianchao Han (a fellow of the Hudson Institute) and Jianli Yang (a survivor of Tiananmen Square) described the formation of the alliance as "a significant step toward confronting China collectively on its human rights abuses and other important issues."
Trade Many alliance members view China as interfering in their domestic markets through what they consider to be dumping, which is the activity of selling goods in order to eliminate or damage a competitor.
Security For several founding co-chairs, such as Australia's Andrew Hastie, China's actions on the world stage, particularly in the South China Sea have revealed the regime to be "revisionist and expansionist" revisionist China is a test of "our alliances and our security like no other time." For co-chair Gen Nakatani (a former Minister of Defence in Japan) the activity of the People's Liberation Army in the region being "dangerous actions" that have a direct "impact on our national security."
Integrity of political systems
Members of the alliance, including Germany's Margarete Bause, are seeing China as attempting to "encroach" on their democratic systems. Several member nations, such as Australia and Sweden, have experienced China actively seeking to influence their institutions, such as Norway's awarding of its Nobel prize to Liu Xiaobo, Sweden's awarding Gui Minhai, or the Australian Labor Party receiving cash donations from patrons connected to the United Front Work Department and its affiliates. Preserving national integrity means preventing CCP attempts at interference in the running of national institutions such as parliaments and the media. Hence their stated principle that, "Democratic states must maintain the integrity of their political systems, and actively seek to preserve a marketplace of ideas free from distortion."
Campaigns Treatment of Uyghurs in Xinjiang
Members of the Alliance have been leading calls for political action in response to the ongoing human rights abuses in the Xinjiang-Uyghur Autonomous Region, which include the forced internment of over one million Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in "re-education camps" and the persecution of Uyghurs in China. The campaign was launched after the Associated Press documented a report by Professor Adrian Zenz which focused on a Chinese Government birth prevention programme in Xinjiang.
IPAC co-chairs signed a joint statement in response to the revelations calling for a United Nations led investigation into the alleged atrocities. The statement was followed up by interventions from members of the Alliance in the European Parliament, the Italian Senate, the British House of Commons and the United States Congress. As a result, the British Government, for the first time, alongside EU, Canada and US, imposed sanctions against 4 senior Chinese officials, as well as the Public Security Bureau of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps.
Hong Kong National Security Law The passing of the National Security Law in Hong Kong was met with severe condemnation and calls to action from members of the Alliance. A joint statement from the co-chairs of the Alliance called for an international “lifeboat” scheme for Hong Kong citizens at risk of political persecution, and for countries to “review and recalibrate” relations with China in order to reduce “strategic dependency”.
In a coordinated bi-partisan response IPAC members Senator Marco Rubio, Senator Bob Menendez, Representative Mike Gallagher and Representative Joaquin Castro introduced the Hong Kong Safe Harbor Act in both chambers of the US Congress.
IPAC members also made public statements on the issue in Australia, the European Union, Italy, Japan, Lithuania and the United Kingdom.
No Extradition to Hong Kong The Alliance is coordinating efforts to call for no extradition to Hong Kong, where it claims the rule of law is severely compromised following the passing of the National Security Law.
Australia and Canada suspended their extradition treaties with Hong Kong, followed by United Kingdom, United States and New Zealand.
Push to boycott Beijing 2022