Who Gets Silenced
U.S.-based organizers canceled an international human rights conference in Zambia days before it was due to open after China pressured the African host country to exclude Taiwanese activists. The cancellation hit RightsCon 2026, an annual summit on human rights and technology, after the Zambian government initially said it was postponed and then demanded control over the conference’s themes, topics and who could participate.
Access Now, the New York-based advocacy group that organizes the summit, said late Friday it had canceled the event in Zambia that was due to take place next week after the government first announced a postponement. The group 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 in person.
Access Now said it pushed back on any move to exclude delegates from Taiwan. In a statement, the group said, "We believe foreign interference is the reason RightsCon 2026 won’t proceed in Zambia." It also said, "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."
What the Authorities Wanted
The Zambian government earlier announced it was postponing the conference because it wanted information on the themes and topics of discussion to ensure they aligned with the country’s "national values, policy priorities and broader public interest considerations." That is the language of control: a state deciding which conversations are acceptable before people are even allowed into the room.
RightsCon is focused on human rights and technology and deals with issues like internet censorship, electronic surveillance and cyberwarfare. More than 2,600 participants were due to attend in Zambia, with another 1,100 attending online, Access Now said. They represented more than 150 countries. The conference was supposed to be a large gathering of people discussing the machinery of digital domination, but instead it became another example of how power can shut the door before the discussion starts.
Access Now said it had been informed by Zambian officials that China had pressured the government because Taiwanese civil society participants were planning to attend in person. The group said it would not accept the exclusion of those delegates. The result was cancellation, not compromise.
The People at the Bottom Pay First
Taiwanese Minister of Digital Affairs Lin Yi-jing said in a statement on Facebook on Saturday that the cancellation of the summit showed China’s unease over "the ideas of freedom, democracy and rule of law that Taiwan and RightsCon represent." Human Rights Watch said Zambian authorities should explain their actions.
The cancellation also landed in the middle of a broader pattern of pressure around Taiwan’s international movement. The move by the Zambian government came just a week after Taiwan claimed that Beijing intervened to stop Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te from visiting another southern African country, Eswatini on April 22. Lai’s visit to Eswatini, the only African nation that maintains formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan, was called off after the Indian Ocean islands of Madagascar, Mauritius and Seychelles were pressured by China to withdraw permission for Lai’s plane to fly over their territory, Taiwan said.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry praised the actions of the three nations and said their "adherence to the one-China principle is in full compliance with international law." China claims self-ruled Taiwan as its breakaway province, to be retaken by force if necessary, and prohibits countries it has diplomatic relations with from maintaining formal ties to Taipei. China has significant influence across Africa.
Taiwanese leader Lai made a surprise announcement on Saturday that he had arrived in Eswatini after the first visit was called off. This time, Lai had not announced publicly that he was traveling. Taiwan "will never be deterred by external pressures," Lai wrote on X.
AP journalist Johnson Lai in Taipei contributed.