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18 Western lawmakers form group to take ‘tougher stance’ on China
- Nine lawmaking bodies are represented in the new Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China
- US members of coalition are Senators Robert Menendez and Marco Rubio, who are known as China hawks
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A group of Western lawmakers on Friday announced the formation of a coalition to “adopt a tougher stance on the Chinese Communist Party” through collective strategies.
The group, the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (Ipac), is aimed at confronting China’s growing geopolitical prowess amid international outcry over its decision to impose a national security law in Hong Kong, as well as criticism of its lack of transparency over the Covid-19 pandemic.
Ipac is made up of 18 high-profile lawmakers sceptical of China, including US Senators Marco Rubio and Robert Menendez, the European Parliament’s Reinhard Bütikofer and Iain Duncan Smith, a member of the British Parliament and former leader of the Conservative Party.
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“How we respond to the People’s Republic of China and the Communist Party’s attempt to reshape the globe is the defining foreign policy question of our time,” said Rubio.
The challenge, he added, “is much greater than any individual country, administration or political party”.
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