As Taiwan’s vice president addressed the European Parliament last year, Beijing has been making a concerted effort to prevent European lawmakers from engaging with Taiwanese officials. According to the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC), Chinese ambassadors in several European nations have been reaching out to lawmakers, urging them not to host Taiwanese representatives or speak to them during visits to the island.
The flurry of activity appears to have started after Taiwanese Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim’s speech at an IPAC summit in Brussels last November, which drew a sharp response from Beijing. At the conference held in the European Parliament building, Bi-khim called on European MPs to boost trade and security ties with Taiwan.
China claims sovereignty over Taiwan and has threatened to “reunite” the island with the mainland by force if necessary. Beijing has for decades forced its trade partners to sign up to some form of “One China” policy, which recognizes China’s claim to Taiwan and accepts that the administration in Beijing is the only legal Chinese government.
In response to Bi-khim’s speech, Chinese officials began pushing “legal advice” on EU nations, either through officials posted in various European missions or through local embassies. They reportedly told European lawmakers that their own border laws required banning entry to politicians from Taiwan, implying that allowing their entry would violate the Schengen Border Code and create rifts between those countries and Beijing.
However, several Western nations, including Britain, France, Lithuania, and Poland, have disregarded Beijing’s complaints and allowed visits by acting or former senior Taiwan officials in recent years. This shift has seen a growing number of countries advocate for Taiwan’s democratic values.
Romanian lawmaker Cristian Ghinea tells The Update Desk that a political storm erupted in Bucharest after he visited Taiwan last year and then Brussels in November. Ghinea, who was part of a six-member parliamentary delegation to Taipei in August, says the Chinese embassy in Bucharest went on a full PR offensive, both online and in-person, criticizing him and the current Romanian leadership.
Luke de Pulford, one of the co-founders of IPAC, says the pressure campaign from China reached new heights after the Brussels summit. He says Chinese ambassadors have been requesting meetings with IPAC co-chairs, urging them not to meet with senior Taiwanese politicians or invite them to Europe.
Ghinea argues that while China goes to great lengths to isolate Taiwan, the issue should be seen as a concern for all countries in Asia and beyond, drawing a comparison to the Ukraine war and its potential to embolden China’s own territorial ambitions.
