Read more at The Economic Times
A group of senior lawmakers from eight democracies including the U.S. have launched a new cross-parliamentary alliance to help counter what they say is the threat China’s growing influence poses to global trade, security and human rights.
The Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, which launched Friday, comes as the U.S. struggles to muster a cohesive alliance to take on China’s growing economic and diplomatic clout and as it leads foreign governments in condemning Beijing’s move to impose national security legislation on Hong Kong that threatens the city’s autonomy.
The group said it aims to “construct appropriate and coordinated responses, and to help craft a proactive and strategic approach on issues related to the People’s Republic of China.” U.S. Republican Senator Marco Rubio and Democrat Bob Menendez, former Japanese defense minister Gen Nakatani, European Parliament foreign affairs committee member Miriam Lexmann and prominent U.K. Conservative lawmaker Iain Duncan Smith are all co-chairs of the newly launched group.
“China, under the rule of Chinese Communist Party, represents a global challenge,” Rubio, a frequent critic of Beijing and supporter of U.S. legislation targeting China over its actions in Hong Kong, said in a video message on Twitter.