A coalition of lawmakers from around the world would support bills and measures to counter China-backed transnational repression in their nations, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers said yesterday.

Members of the Interparliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) have pledged to support efforts to combat Beijing’s surveillance and abduction campaigns on foreign soil, DPP Legislator Fan Yun (范雲) told a news conference at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei, summarizing the outcomes of a summit.

Fan’s comments came weeks after China’s state-run Xinhua news agency reported that the Chongqing Municipal Public Security Bureau was investigating DPP Legislator Puma Shen (沈伯洋) over alleged “secession-related criminal activities.”

Photo courtesy of Fan Yun’s office

Nearly 60 lawmakers from more than 29 nations attended this year’s summit on Friday and Saturday last week, IPAC said.

Members voted to support their governments’ commitments to human rights obligations and target people complicit in transnational repression through criminal prosecutions, visa suspensions and economic sanctions, Fan said.

They pledged to help establish mechanisms for people targeted by transnational repression to seek justice and intergovernmental communication channels for the international community to mount coordinated responses to such incidents, she said.

The alliance’s declaration called on its members to pressure their governments to combat China’s repressive actions abroad as a global attack on human rights, she said.

The IPAC especially condemned China’s repression in Tibet, forced organ harvesting, takeover of global rare earths supply chains and attempts to unilaterally change the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait, Fan said.

The resolution defined unilateral alterations to the “status quo” as efforts to interfere with Taiwan’s autonomous governance, its conduct of diplomacy and using coercion to change the political arrangement in Taiwan, she said.

The IPAC declaration called on members to advocate meaningful governmental action to punish Beijing for attempting to change the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait, she added.

Separately yesterday, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said that China’s menacing comments about Shen were not directed at one person, but were to sow fear and division among all Taiwanese.

The opposition parties should stand in solidarity to defend the rights of fellow Taiwanese regardless of political alignment and take steps to bolster national resilience to deter China from acting on its territorial ambitions to annex Taiwan, Chiu said.

China has no jurisdiction in Taiwan and no democracy would collaborate with Beijing to extradite people wanted on political charges, but Taiwanese should avoid unnecessary travel to China, including Hong Kong and Macau, he said.

Asked about Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers saying that the DPP policy of characterizing China as a hostile foreign power is to blame for increased risks to lawmakers, DPP Legislator Chen Pei-yu (陳培瑜) said that the KMT’s comments used a rhetorical cliche to deflect responsibility when it should be condemning Beijing.

Words cannot change that China’s efforts to construct “long-armed jurisdiction” over Taiwan are the real problem and that the opposition’s cuts to crucial defense bills have jeopardized national security, Chen said.

Condemnation of Beijing’s misdeeds is necessary for Taiwan to establish a baseline before the government can authorize the diplomatic and national security resources to protect Taiwanese abroad, she said.

The KMT should stop using the maintenance of its vaunted communication channels with China as an excuse to disarm Taiwan, she added.

Taiwan People’s Party Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) said that China has no right to arbitrarily arrest or issue warrants for any Taiwanese.

When such incidents occur, the government should take action, Huang said.

President William Lai’s only concrete response to Shen’s situation was to ask Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) to lead legislators from across party lines to support Shen, Huang said, adding that Lai took no active measures.

It is the government’s unshirkable responsibility to protect every Taiwanese, but the DPP has been “sloganeering and finding enemies in Taiwan” instead of finding a substantive solution to the problem, Huang said.

Additional reporting by Yang Hsin-hui