Some weeks later China's Ambassador to Sweden, Gui Congyou addressed Swedish listeners and said, "We treat our friends with fine wine, but for our enemies we have shotguns.

[19]Two contemporaneous events triggered the formation of the alliance: China's initial attempt to suppress news of what eventually became the COVID-19 pandemic and Beijing's plan to criminalize dissent in the semi-autonomous territory of Hong Kong.

[19] In 2021, an advanced persistent threat group associated with the Hubei State Security Department in Wuhan, APT31, targeted the emails of every European Union IPAC member and 43 United Kingdom parliamentary accounts.

[26] The UK government and the United States Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) jointly sanctioned a Chinese Ministry of State Security front company called Wuhan Xiaoruizhi Science and Technology and affiliated individuals linked to APT31 for breaching the UK Electoral Commission and placing malware in critical infrastructure.

[36] The alliance appears to have a defensive posture, seeing China's relationship to the world, at least under Communist Party general secretary Xi Jinping, as being a threat to many democratic values.

Members of the alliance, such as Mike Gallagher of the United States, are concerned that China is undermining the rules based order, with, for example, "illegitimate efforts to build and militarize islands in the region.

Canadian member Dan Albas has expressed concerns about the Chinese Government's "crackdowns on legitimate protests and concentration camps for Uighur Muslims."

Lianchao Han (a fellow of the Hudson Institute) and Jianli Yang (a survivor of Tiananmen Square) described the formation of the alliance as "a significant step toward confronting China collectively on its human rights abuses and other important issues.

"[45] For co-chair Gen Nakatani (a former Minister of Defence in Japan) the activity of the People's Liberation Army in the region being "dangerous actions" that have a direct "impact on our national security.

The campaign was launched after the Associated Press documented a report by Professor Adrian Zenz which focused on a Chinese Government birth prevention programme in Xinjiang.

[53][54][55][56] As a result, the British Government, for the first time, alongside EU, Canada and US, imposed sanctions against 4 senior Chinese officials, as well as the Public Security Bureau of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps.

A joint statement from the co-chairs of the Alliance called for an international “lifeboat” scheme for Hong Kong citizens at risk of political persecution, and for countries to “review and recalibrate” relations with China in order to reduce “strategic dependency”.

On 20 August 2020, Iain Duncan Smith gave a radio interview in London and raised doubts about the UK being able to participate in the 2022 Winter Olympics, due to be hosted by Beijing.

"[73]On 22 September 2020, the Alliance co-published a report by Professor Adrian Zenz describing an apparent widespread system of forced labor in the Tibetan Autonomous Region perpetrated by the Chinese government.

The joint action was publicly endorsed by the UK's foreign secretary Dominic Raab who said "we are sending the clearest message to the Chinese government that the international community will not turn a blind eye to such serious and systemic human rights violations.

"[75] The sanctions involving travel bans and asset freezes, were levelled against the leadership of the Public Security Bureau of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps including Zhu Hailun and Wang Junzheng.

By developing a common set of principles and frameworks that transcend domestic party divisions and international borders, our democracies will be able to keep the rules-based and human rights systems true to their founding purposes.

[82] A number of individuals act as advisors to the Alliance, including Anne-Marie Brady, Wei Jingsheng, Rahima Mahmut and Robert Suettinger.

Geng Shuang, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, has criticized the group, saying in a press conference that "[w]e urge this handful of politicians to respect facts and basic norms of international relations, discard their Cold War mentality and ideological prejudice, and stop exploiting various issues to interfere in China's internal affairs and political manipulation for selfish gains.