'The international community must not sell out Taiwan', Benedict Rogers

It must deter and prevent a military invasion or an economic blockade by Xi Jinping’s regime

For a repressive dictatorship to lock up its own citizens for advocating for human rights is shocking and outrageous, but not surprising.

But for a repressive dictatorship to shut down one of the world’s largest human rights conferences taking place in another country is a violation of that country’s sovereignty, an abuse of international norms, a threat to the very concept of international human rights, and the epitome of the phenomenon increasingly known as “transnational repression.”

Yet that is exactly what happened when RightsCon announced on April 30 and reconfirmed on May 1 that it was canceling its 2026 conference, which was due to begin just four days later, on May 5, in Zambia.

Access Now, the host organization for RightsCon, said that it was “devastated” by the decision, and said they believe “foreign interference is the reason RightsCon 2026 won’t proceed in Zambia or online.”

RightsCon focuses on the intersection of human rights and technology and each year convenes policymakers, government officials, business leaders, legal experts, academics, journalists, and human rights advocates from around the world to engage in discussions about the challenges and to identify strategies, solutions, and pathways for change.

It brings together more than 2,600 participants in person and 1,100 people online from over 150 countries and 750 institutions. Over the past 14 years, RightsCon has met in cities around the world, from Taipei to San José,  from Tunis to Toronto, from Brussels to Rio de Janeiro, and from Manila to San Francisco. This year’s Lusaka meeting is the first time since its establishment that RightsCon has been canceled.

Reportedly, the reason RightsCon 2026 in Zambia was canceled was that China pressured the Zambian government to shut it down, even though the organizers had been liaising with Zambia for two years, and the government in Lusaka earlier endorsed it.

The organizers said that on April 27, they were told that China was pressing Zambia to cancel the conference, specifically “because Taiwanese civil society participants were planning to join us in person.”

China has already succeeded in shutting Taiwan government officials out of intergovernmental and multilateral organizations. Taiwan should be in the World Health Organization, for example, with observer status at the very least, but thanks to pressure from Beijing, it is excluded — with potentially dangerous consequences for global health. It should — as one of Asia’s most vibrant democracies with a track record of supporting civil society, a free press, and the rule of law — be a partner for others in the free world in championing human rights. It should at least have observer status at the United Nations. Yet, thanks to Beijing’s bullying, it is shut out.

But it is one thing to exclude Taiwanese government representatives from intergovernmental conferences. That is disgraceful, but it has sadly become somewhat the norm. Now, however, Beijing’s reach is extending further, to exclude and silence Taiwanese civil society from global civil society gatherings — and that cannot be tolerated.

I was in Taiwan most recently last November, and I was deeply inspired by the vibrancy and freedom that Taiwanese civil society exhibits. Groups like the Taiwan Digital Diplomacy Association, the New School for Democracy, and the well-established Taiwan Foundation for Democracy, which presented the organization I work for, Fortify Rights, with the Asia Democracy and Human Rights Award in 2022, are vital and respected actors in Asia’s civil society space — and deserve to participate in regional and global forums on human rights. Indeed, there is much we can all learn from Taiwan’s civil society.

For governments across the world — throughout Europe, the Americas, Africa and Asia, and for civil society and human rights defenders in these regions too — the time has come to wake up, stand up and speak up. There is a big bully on the world stage, and it is based in Beijing.

Beijing wants to crush Taiwan, one of Asia’s most vibrant and freest democracies. It wants to silence critics in the region and beyond. And it wants to ensure its agenda, its interpretation of history, its ideology, and its interests are pursued in international fora — and that its plans prevail and its critics are repressed.

For those of us who believe in freedom, democracy, and human rights — in whichever region of the world — we must stand up and say no.

We must say clearly that human rights are not the preserve of any one culture, race, religion, or clique. Freedom does not belong to one particular civilisation alone. These are universal values. They are human values. They are for everyone, everywhere, all the time, and as such, Beijing does not have the right to shut down global gatherings — especially non-governmental ones — that exist to champion these values.

As tensions mount between Beijing and Taipei, the international community must work hard to do two things.

First, it must deter and prevent the worst-case scenario — a military invasion or an economic blockade of Taiwan by Xi Jinping’s regime.

Second, in doing so, it must not sell out Taiwan.

It must robustly defend Taiwan’s democracy and human rights, and its right to participate in relevant international fora.

It is in all our interests to do so. And it is in no one’s interests except Beijing to sell out Taiwan.

This article was published in UCA News on 15 May 2026.

Photo: Chensiyuan, edit by DXR, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons