Former British Prime Minister Liz Truss warned of the economic and political threats China poses to the West during a visit to Beijing’s democratic rival Taiwan on Wednesday.
Truss is the first former British Prime Minister since Margaret Thatcher in the 1990s to visit the autonomous island republic which China claims as its own territory, to be conquered by force if necessary.
Truss, who is still a member of the House of Commons, follows a growing list of elected representatives and former officials from the US, EU nations and elsewhere who have visited Taiwan to show defiance of the Chinese threats and attempts to isolate the island.
“There are those who say they don’t want another Cold War. But this is not a choice we are in a position to make. Because China has already embarked on a self-sufficiency drive, whether we want to disengage from its economy or not.”, Truss said in a speech to the Prospect Foundation at a hotel in the Taiwanese capital, Taipei.
China is increasing its navy at an alarming rate and is carrying out the largest military buildup in peacetime history.said.
“They have already formed alliances with other nations that want to see the free world in decline. They have already made up their minds about their strategy. The only choice we have is whether to appease and accommodate, or take steps to prevent conflict.” Truss said.
Elsewhere, Truss praised his successor, Rishi Sunak, for describing China as “Britain’s biggest long-term threat” in comments last summer and for calling for the closure of Chinese government-run cultural centers known as the Confucius Institutes, which have been criticized as outlets for Communist Party propaganda. Instead, such services could be provided by people from Taiwan and Hong Kong who come to the UK of their own free will.
In Beijing, the spokesman for the Cabinet’s Taiwan Affairs Office, Mao Xiaoguang, accused Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party of “spending the tax money of the Taiwanese people to bribe some anti-China politicians who have given up their charges to represent a farce of seeking external support for independence in Taiwan.”
Mao also renewed China’s military threats against Taiwan, a day after the Chinese Defense Ministry condemned US military assistance to the island.
“If they continue to challenge and compel us, we will have to take decisive action to defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity.”Mao told reporters at a biweekly news conference. “No one should underestimate our strong determination, unwavering will and great ability.”
Some see next year as a crucial period for tense relations between the parties, with American and Taiwanese voters going to the polls. Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen has served the maximum of two terms and Vice President Lai Ching-te, a staunch supporter of independence, will run for the DPP.
Meanwhile, the main opposition Nationalist Party, or Kuomintang, on Wednesday nominated local politician Hou Yu-ih as its candidate in January elections. Hou rose to fame as a senior police official, but has relatively little experience dealing with China and Taiwan’s international partners.
Taiwan will also elect a new legislature, which is currently controlled by the ruling party.
China’s relations with Britain and most other Western democracies have suffered a steep decline in recent years, largely as a result of disputes over human rights, commercial technology and China’s aggressive moves into Taiwan and the Sea. South China.
Beijing’s relations with London have been especially sour over China’s widespread crackdown on free speech, democracy and other civil liberties in Hong Kong, a former British colony that was promised to keep its freedoms after handover to the government. Chinese in 1997.
China has said a key previous bilateral agreement on Hong Kong no longer applies and has rejected British expressions of concern as interference in China’s internal political affairs. China has also bristled over a joint Australian-American-British deal known as AUKUS that would provide Australia with nuclear-powered submarines in part to counter the growing perceived threat from China.
Truss, who served an unfortunate seven weeks as prime minister last year, also said that China could not be trusted to meet its commitments in areas ranging from trade to environmental protection.
And he praised Taiwan as “an enduring rebuke to totalitarianism” whose fate was in a “fundamental interest” for Europe.
“A blockade or invasion of Taiwan would undermine freedom and democracy in Europe. Just as a Russian victory in the Ukraine would undermine freedom and democracy in the Pacific,” Truss said.
“We in the UK and the free world must do everything we can to support them,” he said.
Truss’s comments also stood in stark contrast to comments posted by French President Emmanuel Macron last month that raised questions about whether Macron’s views were in line with other European countries on Taiwan’s status.
“The question that we must answer, as Europeans, is the following: Is it in our interest to accelerate (a crisis) in Taiwan? No”Macron said in the interview. “The worst thing would be to think that we Europeans should become followers on this issue and follow the lead of the American agenda and an overreaction from China.”
Soon after, Macron denied any change in France’s views towards Taiwan, saying: “We are in favor of the status quo, and this policy is constant.”
(with information from AP)
Keep reading:
They denounce that Russian spies hacked the personal phone of former British Prime Minister Liz Truss
The Chancellor of the Exchequer who dismantled the Liz Truss plan was confirmed by Rishi Sunak, the new British Prime Minister
Liz Truss said goodbye as British Prime Minister after the shortest tenure in history and defended the measures that caused her debacle
Source-www.infobae.com