Former British Prime Minister Liz Truss warns of China threats during Taiwan visit

Former British Prime Minister Liz Truss warned of the economic- and political threats to the West posed by China during a visit on May 17 to Beijing’s democratic rival Taiwan.

Former British Prime Minister Liz Truss warned of the economic- and political threats to the West posed by China during a visit on May 17 to Beijing's democratic rival Taiwan.

Ms. Truss is the first former British Prime Minister since Margaret Thatcher in the 1990s to visit the self-governing island republic that China claims as its own territory, to be conquered by force if necessary.

Still a sitting member of the House of Commons, Ms. Truss follows a growing list of elected representatives and former officials from the U.S., European Union (EU) nations and elsewhere who have visited Taiwan to show their defiance of China’s threats and attempts to cut off the island and its high-tech economy from the international community.

“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-reliance drive, whether we want to decouple from their economy or not," Ms. Truss said in an address to the Prospect Foundation at a hotel in the Taiwanese capital, Taipei.

“China is growing its navy at an alarming rate and is undertaking the biggest military build-up in peacetime history,” she said.

"They have already formed alliances with other nations that want to see the free world in decline. They have already made a choice about their strategy. The only choice we have is whether we appease and accommodate — or we take action to prevent conflict,” Ms. Truss said.

Elsewhere, Ms. Truss praised her successor, Rishi Sunak, for describing China as “the biggest long-term threat to Britain” in comments last summer and for urging the closure of Chinese government-run cultural centres known as Confucius Institutes, which have been criticised as outlets for Communist Party propaganda. Such services could instead be provided by people from Taiwan and Hong Kong who come to the United Kingdom without government backing.