September 16, 2022
Chinese government figures responsible for human rights abuses would be slapped with tough sanctions by Australia under a multinational action plan backed by senior federal MPs.
Members of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China have also agreed to push their governments to consider economic sanctions on the Communist Party regime to deter military action in Taiwan.
And they plan to lead more foreign delegations to Taiwan, despite the Chinese government’s furious reaction to US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s trip last month.
IPAC’s members from 30 countries – including Labor MP Peter Khalil, the chair of Australia’s powerful parliamentary intelligence and security committee – signed off on the Beijing blueprint in Washington DC on Thursday.
IPAC co-chair James Paterson, the Liberal spokesman for countering foreign interference, said it laid out “a clear pathway to help democracies resist coercion and intimidation from Beijing”.
“Only by acting together can we hope to preserve and maintain the values we hold so dear, and which were paid for by the sacrifices of previous generations,” Senator Paterson said.
“We leave the summit stronger than ever, determined to continue and deepen collaboration within this extraordinary network, and determined to implement this important communique in each of our countries.”
The Australian parliament last year passed laws for a Magnitsky-style sanctions regime that was driven by the late Labor senator Kimberley Kitching, who was one of IPAC’s founding members.
It enables the federal government to enforce travel bans and freeze the funds of perpetrators of human rights abuses.
The alliance’s members now want to use such sanctions in countries including Australia to hit Chinese officials and entities responsible for human rights abuses, including over “mass atrocity crimes” in the Uyghur region and Beijing’s clampdown on Hong Kong.
They also agreed at the Washington summit to push for sanctions on Chinese entities that were supporting Russia’s war machine in the Ukraine invasion.
On Taiwan, IPAC’s members said they would “campaign to ensure our governments signal to the (People’s Republic of China) that military aggression towards Taiwan will cost Beijing dearly”.
“Economic and political measures, including meaningful sanctions, should be considered to deter military escalation and to ensure trade and other exchanges with Taiwan continue unimpeded,” the summit communique said.
They also backed bringing Taiwan into appropriate trading blocs and striking bilateral trade deals, along with broader changes to create stronger supply chains that reduced the dependence of democratic nations on China for renewables, rare earths and medical supplies.
