China poses the “largest threat to the free world”, Liz Truss warned today as she prepares to visit Taiwan.
The former Prime Minister launched her latest salvo in her war of words with Beijing - urging the West to “wake up” to the threat.
She told the Copenhagen Democracy Summit: “I think they are a very clear threat, I think they’re the largest threat we face to the free world.
“I believe that we all need to wake up to the threat China presents.
“We need to make sure that Taiwan is able to defend itself and we’re not facing a very serious situation down the track.”
China has vowed to retake the breakaway island - by force if necessary - by 2050.
Lashing out at “rhetorical threats and bullying” from Beijing, former Foreign Secretary Ms Truss urged Western leaders to warn the regime of a “very severe and serious reaction” if it attacks Taiwan.
She described Taiwan as the “vital frontline now of the struggle between authoritarianism and democracy”.
The doomed premier, who lasted just 49 days in Downing Street, jets into Taipei on Wednesday to deliver a sabre-rattling speech calling for the West to take a harder line against the Chinese Communist Party.
She admitted she wanted to visit Taiwan while PM but was thwarted by of British government policy.
Since being forced out of No10 as Britain’s shortest-serving PM, she has tried to forge a niche as a hawk on Beijing, warning of China’s rising military might and growing economic dominance.
Today, she said there was “no doubt” the UK, US and Europe had “become too dependent on China”, adding: “That’s a problem because it has given China leverage over us.”
Ms Truss' visit could create a diplomatic headache for the UK Government which does not recognise Taiwan, nor maintain formal diplomatic relations with the island.
One Tory MP accused the social media-loving backbencher of “Instagram diplomacy”.
But she defended her trip, accusing China of trying to create a policy where “nobody in any Western democracy should have any engagement at all with Taiwan”.
She warned: “I believe that makes it more likely that China will succeed in its ambitions of taking over Taiwan and extinguishing freedom and democracy there.
“The reason I am going to Taiwan is I have been invited by the Taiwan government and I believe it is they - the democratically-elected government of Taiwan - (who) know best what is best for their citizens and their future.”
NATO allies are poised for deeper relations with the alliance’s “Asian-Pacific partners”, according to the coalition’s Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg.
Leaders from four key Pacific Rim nations are set to join NATO allies for crunch talks in Lithuanian capital Vilnius in July.
“For the second time in our history, we will invite heads of state and government from Japan, South Korea, New Zealand and Australia to participate,” said former Norwegian PM Mr Stoltenberg, speaking via videolink from NATO headquarters in Brussels.
“This demonstrates we realise that what happens in Asia, in the Pacific, matters for NATO and therefore we are strengthening our partnership with them.”
He went on: “China matters for our security and China poses a challenge to our interests, our values and to our security.
“That’s one of the reasons why we are now working even more closely with our Asia-Pacific partners and why we have so clearly communicated that the status quo in and around Taiwan should not be changed by force and China’s threatening rhetoric and behaviour against Taiwan is unjustified.
“Any differences and disputes around Taiwan should be resolved by peaceful means.”
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