INTERVIEW/IPAC not 'anti-China,' says founder de Pulford

Taipei, Aug. 9 (CNA) Luke de Pulford, the founder of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC), has said the organization is not "anti-China" but instead seeks to help democratic governments develop more realistic policies toward China.

In an interview with CNA on Wednesday, de Pulford, who established the global network of lawmakers in 2020, said the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) branding of IPAC as "anti-China" was part of Beijing's campaign to discredit its critics.

"When they see lawmakers from different traditions around the world speaking with one voice about concerns related to the behavior of the contemporary CCP, they want to shut it up," de Pulford said.

He described IPAC as a broad coalition of legislators from different political backgrounds who often hold differing views on China and how to engage with it.

"The CCP has upset them, and they want it to be addressed," he said. "They're slowly coming to a realization of what the CCP is today, as opposed to what we hoped it might become or what they thought it was."

De Pulford stressed that many IPAC members have "a deep love and respect for China, Chinese culture and the Chinese people."

"They're people who do not like authoritarianism and don't like the behavior of an authoritarian government. That isn't the same as being anti-China, so we shouldn't accept that characterization," he said.

He added that Beijing's efforts to portray IPAC as anti-China had failed to curb the organization's rapid growth, particularly in Latin America.

IPAC now comprises 320 lawmakers from 45 legislatures worldwide.

According to de Pulford, the alliance's objective is not to change China's behavior but to encourage democracies to adopt more realistic policies toward China.

"People are not prepared for escalation in cross-strait tensions, and they're not doing nearly enough to try to deter escalation," he said.

"So we don't have realistic policies, and we need them. IPAC is there to use the parliamentary toolbox to force that conversation. That's its mission -- to change democratic policy on China."

Since its founding, IPAC has regularly issued statements and resolutions on Taiwan, emphasizing the importance of maintaining peace across the Taiwan Strait, supporting Taiwan's self-determination and resisting Beijing's diplomatic and economic coercion.

The alliance's November 2025 summit in Brussels also saw Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) become the first sitting vice president of the Republic of China, Taiwan's formal name, to deliver an in-person address at a European Parliament venue.

IPAC also held a summit in Taipei in the summer of 2024, bringing together 49 lawmakers from 24 legislatures across five continents -- the largest parliamentary delegation ever to visit Taiwan.

During that gathering, Taiwan formally joined the alliance, with ruling Democratic Progressive Party lawmaker Fan Yun (范雲) and Taiwan People's Party lawmaker Chen Gau-tzu (陳昭姿) serving as IPAC co-chairs.

De Pulford said IPAC had invited Taiwan's main opposition Kuomintang (KMT) to join when the alliance was founded, but the party had yet to do so.

"Right from the beginning of IPAC, we've been very open to the KMT's participation," he said. "I've had conversations with the KMT, some of them better than others. It's been quite rocky over the past few years, but we're very much open to KMT participation, and we hope that they join at some point."

He said he did not know why the KMT had not joined.

"Political parties in Taiwan that want to have fruitful relations internationally, if they overlook IPAC, they're overlooking some of their strongest friends internationally," he said.

"It makes no sense," he added.