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Swarajya Staff
Jun 08, 2020, 09:26 AM | Updated 09:26 AM IST
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In a first of its kind development, 18 Members of Parliament (MPs) from the United States (US), Europe and a few other nations have formed a body called the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) to push for a tough positioning against China's communist party regime for its moves in Hong Kong and its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, reports Economic Times.
Apart from Europe and the US, the IPAC also includes MPs from the United Kingdom (UK), Japan, Australia, Canada, Norway and Sweden. The US Senators who are a part of the alliance are Senators Marco Rubio and Robert Menendez. From the European Parliament, the IPAC has parliamentarians Rein Bütikofer and Iain Duncan Smith as members.
Announcing the IPAC's formation, European Parliamentarian Bütikofer had said, "Xi Jinping’s China combines systemic human rights abuses at home with efforts to reshape the international order according to its hegemonic ambitions. One thing the last decade has taught us is that no country can defend the integrity of the international order alone."
It should be noted that US Senators Marco Rubio and Robert Menendez are known China hawks who had in 2019 also introduced a bill calling for the imposition of sanctions on China over its oppression and excesses against the Uyghur Muslims. A version of that bill was recently also passed by both chambers of the US' Parliament as well, though President Donald Trump is still yet to sign it.