Do not give China a free pass on human rights, protest group tells G20

Legislators from 14 countries were joined by political exiles to demand that other G20 members hold China to account for suspected human rights abuses

The meeting comes amid reports of Chinese intransigence in talks to reach a deal on climate at the G20 and the subsequent COP26 summit in Glasgow

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Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Joseph Wu in Prague, Czech Republic on Wednesday. Photo: CTK via dpa

Published: 3:09am, 30 Oct 2021Updated: 4:00am, 30 Oct 2021

As world leaders prepared to gather in Rome for the G20 leaders’ summit, they were urged to not give China a free pass on human rights in exchange for its cooperation on issues like climate change.

At an event just metres from where US President Joe Biden was holding bilateral talks with Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, legislators from 14 countries were joined by political exiles from Hong Kong, Tibet and Xinjiang to demand that other G20 members hold China to account for suspected abuses in these regions.

“The one subject they don’t appear to be discussing at the G20 is really the elephant in the room, which is what are we going to do going forward about the terrible misbehaviour of arguably one of the most important nations of all, which is China,” said Iain Duncan Smith, a former British Conservative Party leader.

“So, we’re here to remind our leaders at the G20, that the subject that they don’t want to talk about, we are going to talk about it because it is vital to human rights, to economics, and to climate change.”

“The one subject they don’t appear to be discussing at the G20 is… the terrible misbehaviour of arguably one of the most important nations of all, which is China,” said Iain Duncan Smith, a former British Conservative Party leader. Photo: EPA-EFE

Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Joseph Wu, by video link, addressed the meeting hosted by the Inter Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC), a self-styled “anti-Chinese Communist Party” group of politicians from more than 20 countries worldwide. The event was partly funded by the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy, an NGO with links to the government in Taipei.