Beijing pressures lawmakers from 6 countries to not attend summit in Taiwan

Chinese diplomats are pressuring lawmakers from at least six countries not to attend a China-focused summit in Taiwan, participants told The Associated Press.

Politicians in Bolivia, Colombia, Slovakia, North Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and one other Asian country that declined to be named, say they are getting texts, calls and urgent requests for meetings that would conflict with their plans to travel to Taiwan, in what they describe as efforts to isolate the self-governed island.

The summit begins Monday and is being held by the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, a group of hundreds of lawmakers from 35 countries concerned about how democracies approach Beijing. The Associated Press spoke to the organizers and three lawmakers, and reviewed texts and emails sent by Chinese diplomats to the lawmakers asking whether they were planning to participate in the summit.

I'm Wu, from Chinese Embassy, read a message sent to Antonio Miloshoski, a member of parliament in North ...