BEIJING: Lawmakers from at least six countries said Chinese diplomats were pressuring them not to attend a China-focused conference in Taiwan, in what they described as efforts to isolate the self-governed island.

Politicians in Bolivia, Colombia, Slovakia, North Macedonia, Bosnia and one Asian country that declined to be named said they were getting texts, calls and urgent requests for meetings that would conflict with their plans to travel to Taipei.

China vehemently defends its claim to Taiwan and views it as its own territory to be annexed by force if necessary.

The conference begins Monday and is being held by the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, or IPAC, a group of hundreds of lawmakers from 35 countries concerned about how democracies approach Beijing.

IPAC has long faced pressure from the Chinese government: Some members have been sanctioned by Beijing, and in 2021 the group was targeted by Chinese state-sponsored hackers, according to a U.S. indictment unsealed earlier this year.

But Luke de Pulford, the alliance’s director, said the pressure from Chinese officials the past few days has been unprecedented.

During past IPAC meetings in other locations, lawmakers were approached by Chinese diplomats only after they concluded.

This year, the first in which IPAC’s annual meeting is taking place in Taiwan, there appeared to be a coordinated attempt to stop participants from attending.

The Associated Press spoke to three lawmakers and reviewed texts and emails sent by Chinese diplomats asking whether they were planning to participate in the meeting.

In some cases, lawmakers described vague inquiries about their plans to travel to Taiwan. In other cases, the contact was more menacing: One lawmaker told AP that Chinese diplomats messaged the head of her party with a demand to stop her from going.

“They contacted president of my political party, they ask him to stop me to travel to Taiwan,” said Sanela Klarić, a member of parliament in Bosnia.

“They’re trying, in my country, to stop me from travelling… This is really not OK.”

China routinely threatens retaliation against politicians and countries that show support for Taiwan, which has only informal relations with most countries due to Chinese diplomatic pressure.

Klarić said the pressure was unpleasant but only steeled her determination to go on the trip.

“I really am fighting against countries or societies where the tool to manipulate and control peoples is fear,” said Klarić, adding that it reminded her of threats and intimidation she faced while suffering through wars in Bosnia in the 1990s.

“I really hate the feeling when somebody is frightening you.”

The Chinese Foreign Ministry did not respond to a request for comment.

De Pulford called the pressure “gross foreign interference”.

“How would PRC officials would feel if we tried to tell them about their travel plans, where they could and could not go?” de Pulford said, using the acronym for China’s official name, the People’s Republic of China.

“It’s absolutely outrageous that they think that they can interfere in the travel plans of foreign legislators.”

Lawmakers from 25 countries were expected to attend this year’s meeting, including Japan, India and the U.K., and IPAC said in a statement that some would meet with high-level Taiwanese officials.

The Taiwanese Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Last week, Beijing criticised Taiwan for its annual Han Kuang military drills, saying that Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party was “carrying out provocations to seek independence”.

“Any attempt to whip up tensions and use force to seek independence or reject reunification is doomed to failure,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told reporters.

China has been peeling off the island’s diplomatic allies, often with promises of development aid, in a long-running competition between the two that has swung in Beijing’s favour in recent years.

The Pacific Island nation of Nauru switched recognition to Beijing earlier this year, a move that reduced Taiwan’s dwindling number of diplomatic allies to 12.

But China’s at-times heavy-handed approach has also alienated other countries.

In 2021, Beijing downgraded relations and blocked imports from Lithuania, a member of both the EU and NATO, after the Baltic nation broke with diplomatic custom by agreeing that a Taiwanese representative office in its capital of Vilnius would bear the name Taiwan instead of Chinese Taipei, which other countries use to avoid offending Beijing.

The following year, the EU adopted a resolution criticising Beijing’s behaviour toward Taiwan and took action against China at the World Trade Organisation over the import restrictions.

The pressure over the IPAC meeting was also triggering backlash.

Bolivian Senator Centa Rek said she submitted a letter of protest after a Chinese diplomat called her and told not to go to Taiwan, saying the island was run by an “imposter president” and that the meeting was hosted by an organisation “not accepted within the terms of the policy of mainland China”.

When Rek refused, the diplomat said he would report her decision to his embassy, which Rek interpreted as a “veiled threat”.

“I told him that it was an unacceptable intrusion, that I would not accept an order or intrusion from any government,” Rek said.

“These were personal decisions and that it seemed to me that he had gone beyond all international political norms.”

Most of the lawmakers targeted appear to be from smaller countries, which de Pulford, the alliance’s director, said was likely because Beijing “feels that they can get away with it”.

But he added that the coercive tactics have only made participants more determined to take part in the summit.

Miriam Lexmann, a Slovakian member of the European Parliament whose party head was approached by Chinese diplomats, said the pressure underscored her reason for coming to Taiwan.

We want to “exchange information, ways how to deal with those challenges and threats which China represents to the democratic part of the world, and of course, to support Taiwan”, she said.