The medieval church cloisters in the small Dutch city of Maastricht are an unlikely setting for Chinese Communist Party influence, writes China correspondent ErykBagshaw
They have been criticised for ideological prejudice, pushing an aggressive anti-China line, and fermenting a cold-war mentality. Internally, the mismatch of left, right, centrist MPs is not a unanimous voice, with disagreement over tactics and direction, but the purpose of the group is mostly to share experiences of the Chinese governments approach in each country.
He accuses former UK administrations of having a "kowtow policy", British industrialists of taking the "Chinese shilling" and says the Chinese government has bullied Australia as a warning to others: "this is what will happen to you". "When Germany walked into the Rhineland everybody sort of shrugged. They said 'they are their territories, they had a right to do it'. So when China decided to crack down on Hong Kong, there were protests and governments saying 'you should not be doing this' but next to nothing to follow that up.
"The point is right now China believes that protests are not problems because at the end of the day, governments are persuaded by money," says Duncan Smith.
Unlike Australia, New Zealand continues to have bilateral contact with its Chinese partners. On Wednesday it was lauded by China's Deputy Minister of Commerce Wang Shouwen for "continuing to lead relations between China and Western countries".
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