Rights summit in Zambia is canceled after Chinese pressure to exclude Taiwanese activists

CAPE TOWN, South Africa — The U.S.-based organizers of an international human rights conference said they canceled it days before it was due to open because China pressured the African host country to exclude Taiwanese activists. Organizers of Access Now, a New York-based advocacy group, said late Friday it had canceled the RightsCon summit in Zambia that was due to take place next week after the Zambian government initially said it was postponed. Access Now said it had been informed by Zambian officials that the government had been pressured by China over the conference “because Taiwanese civil society participants were planning to join us in person.” Access Now said it pushed back on any move to exclude delegates from Taiwan. “We believe foreign interference is the reason RightsCon 2026 won’t proceed in Zambia,” Access Now said in a statement. “What the government wanted from us in order to lift the postponement was conveyed to us informally from multiple sources: … we would have to moderate specific topics and exclude communities at risk, including our Taiwanese participants, from in-person and online participation.” The Zambian government earlier announced it was postponing the conference because it wanted information on the themes and topics