China’s new red line: Sanctioning foreign lawmakers over Taiwan visits

China has placed four New Zealand Members of Parliament (MPs) on an immigration blacklist barring them from entering mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macau for one year following their recent visit to Taiwan. New Zealand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) confirmed on 4 June that this marks the first time Beijing has sanctioned New Zealand parliamentarians over a Taiwan trip.

Australian media reported that New Zealand and Australia will lodge formal diplomatic protests with Beijing.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said: “Several individual New Zealand lawmakers visited China’s Taiwan region in disregard of the grave concern and firm opposition of the Chinese side. Their action violates the one-China principle.” Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs strongly condemned Beijing’s punitive action and urged China to stop pressuring and interfering with elected legislators from other countries who engage in exchanges with Taiwan.

Pressure and constraints

Academics interviewed said Beijing is seeking to further constrain Taiwan’s international space, as well as the room for other countries to engage with Taiwan, in order to create a more favourable external environment for eventual cross-strait reunification. They added that imposing sanctions on foreign parliamentarians who visit Taiwan in an official capacity could become a new policy trend for mainland China.

According to international wire services and New Zealand and Australian media reports, the four New Zealand MPs were part of a cross-party delegation that visited Taiwan for five days in early May, during which they met with Taiwanese Vice-President Hsiao Bi-khim. The delegation included Maureen Pugh, Laura McClure and David Wilson from the ruling coalition, as well as opposition Labour MP Duncan Webb. The visit was the third organised by New Zealand’s All-Party Parliamentary Group on Taiwan since its establishment in 2023.

On their return, the MPs were notified by the parliamentary secretariat that they had been placed on Beijing’s entry ban list.

Reaction from New Zealand

A spokesperson for New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters expressed surprise that “China has taken a decision to, for the first time, impose travel bans”, noting: “New Zealand MPs have visited Taiwan for decades and such visits are not inconsistent with New Zealand’s One China policy.” MFAT reiterated that while New Zealand maintains no formal diplomatic ties with Taipei, this has never precluded trade, economic, cultural and indigenous exchanges. Taiwan is New Zealand’s eighth-largest export market, while mainland China is its largest trading partner.

According to Radio New Zealand, the Chinese embassy in Wellington indicated that the sanctions could be reduced or lifted if the MPs apologised.

That option was flatly rejected by MP Laura McClure, who told The New Zealand Herald that the ban constituted “a type of foreign interference” by Beijing to deter other politicians from making similar trips. Webb added that the Chinese embassy had warned them before the trip that it would result in a ban on entering mainland China.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation described the move as “unprecedented” and almost unheard of for Western countries’ MPs who visited Taiwan. Foreign politicians previously sanctioned by Beijing have generally been individuals who visited Taiwan frequently or held significant influence in foreign affairs, such as Japanese House of Representatives member Keiji Furuya, a long-time advocate of Japan-Taiwan ties, and US Congressman Michael McCaul, who visited Taiwan in 2023 while serving as chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

In late May, five German MPs visited Taiwan under the banner of the Berlin-Taipei Parliamentary Friendship Group and met with President Lai Ching-te. In response to questions from German reporters during a regular press conference on 4 June as to whether the lawmakers would face similar entry bans, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning warned: “Anyone who tramples on the red line and oversteps on the Taiwan question must pay the price.”

Beijing’s considerations

Associate Professor Li Mingjiang from the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University (NTU) told Lianhe Zaobao (LHZB) that the travel bans imposed on the four New Zealand MPs could signal a new policy trend in Beijing. Going forward, he said, mainland China may adopt tougher countermeasures against foreign parliamentarians who visit Taiwan in an official capacity.

Li said Beijing may believe its national strength has increased and that, in order to create more favourable conditions for cross-strait reunification, it must further reduce Taiwan’s international space and reinforce the argument that the “one China" principle reflects an existing reality.

As for whether Beijing’s sanctions against New Zealand could effectively deter other countries, Li assessed that nations with a high degree of economic dependence on China would likely exercise greater restraint. However, in many Western countries, legislative and executive powers are separate, making it more difficult for governments to prevent lawmakers from engaging in official exchanges with Taiwan.

Bao Chengke, assistant director of the Institute for East Asian Studies in Shanghai, assessed that Beijing decided to sanction the New Zealand MPs after weighing a range of factors. US President Donald Trump said after his recent trip to China that he did not want Taiwan to go independent, and did not want US forces travelling 9,500 miles to fight a war, while New Zealand has recently strengthened military ties with Japan and may even purchase naval frigates from Japan. Beijing needs to respond to these developments.

This article was first published in Lianhe Zaobao as “北京首禁访台新西兰议员入境 制裁措施或成新趋势”.

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