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Lawrence Chung

Liz Truss will visit Taiwan for five days next week, becoming the first former British prime minister to visit the self-ruled island in decades.
With cross-strait tensions rising, Truss’ visit is certain to rile Beijing, which sees the island as its territory and has vowed to take it back, by force if necessary.
It will also create a diplomatic headache for her successor, Rishi Sunak, who is seeking to re-engage Beijing after a period of strained relations, according to observers.
Truss, Britain’s shortest-serving prime minister and still a member of parliament, is expected to arrive in Taiwan on Tuesday.
“She will meet top members of the government … visit cultural and economic establishments and exchange views with the local political, business and academic sectors to strengthen friendly Taiwan-Britain ties,” the island’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday.
The ministry said Truss would make a keynote speech in Taipei next Wednesday at the invitation of the Prospect Foundation, a government think tank.
According to the foundation – which Beijing sanctioned as a pro-independence group last month – the speech will look at threats to the island and how like-minded countries in the world should stand up for Taipei to counter Beijing.
Most countries, including the US, do not see Taiwan as an independent state, but are opposed to a change of the status quo by force.
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Truss will be the first former British prime minister to set foot in Taiwan since Margaret Thatcher visited the island in 1992 and 1996. Thatcher left office in 1990.
“Taiwan is a beacon of freedom and democracy,” Truss said in a statement on the planned visit. “I am looking forward to showing solidarity with the Taiwanese people in person in the face of increasingly aggressive behaviour and rhetoric from the regime in Beijing.”
Truss is known for her hawkish stand on Beijing and has urged Britain to reduce its economic reliance on mainland China, which she has described as a threat rather than a competitor.
She has also been urging Western democracies to take a tougher line on Beijing.
When French President Emmanuel Macron said last month that Europe should not be involved in the Taiwan Strait, Truss said he was “weak” and the West should not placate Beijing over the Taiwan issue.
In August last year, when then-US House speaker Nancy Pelosi defied repeated warnings from Beijing to visit Taiwan, Truss also said it was “well within her [Pelosi’s] rights as speaker of Congress to visit the island’s capital Taipei”.
“The real issue was the retaliatory action by China,” Truss said at that time, referring to the unprecedented live-fire drills staged by Beijing around the island in response to Pelosi’s visit, which it saw as a serious violation of its sovereignty.
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Li Da-jung, a professor of international relations and strategic studies at Tamkang University in New Taipei, said Truss’ visit could pile pressure on Sunak who was seeking economic re-engagement with Beijing.
“Britain-China relations had been seriously strained since Beijing imposed the national security law in Hong Kong in 2020 and soured further after Truss took office as the prime minister in 2022. But her successor, Sunak, has appeared to choose to ease tensions with Beijing,” Li said.
In Britain’s updated integrated review of security, defence and foreign affairs in March, the Sunak administration stopped short of designating Beijing as a threat to the UK, opting instead to call it an “epoch-defining and systemic challenge”.
“It appears Sunak has been treading carefully on how to re-engage mainland China, and Truss’ visit might create some problems for him, given that she is still a highly prominent British politician, though she is visiting Taiwan as a member of parliament,” Li said.


Lu Yeh-chung, a professor of diplomacy at National Chengchi University in Taipei, said Truss’ trip could create trouble for Sunak but could in a way “help balance his engagement policymaking to look like it is not overly appeasing China”.
The announcement of the trip coincided with a visit to Hong Kong by British Investment Minister Dominic Johnson, the first by a British minister to the former UK colony since 2018 and the introduction of the national security law.
Lu said Johnson’s trip indicated Britain’s desire to re-engage with the city and Beijing.
“Sunak has found the need to re-engage with Beijing economically, and Johnson’s Hong Kong visit is one of his efforts to achieve the purpose,” he said.
Sunak’s spokesman denied on Tuesday that the government was bowing to Beijing, insisting Johnson’s visit was “completely appropriate” to support UK jobs and that London would continue to challenge Beijing.
On Friday, British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly, who had previously said isolating Beijing would be a “sign of weakness”, said he discussed Taiwan, Hong Kong and Xinjiang in pre-coronation talks with Chinese Vice-President Han Zheng.


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Taiwan

China headache or help for Rishi Sunak? Former British PM Liz Truss to visit Taiwan

Former British prime minister Liz Truss is expected to arrive in Taiwan on Tuesday for a five-day visit. Photo: Reuters

UK warns China secrecy over military expansion risks ‘tragic miscalculation’

A Chinese warship takes part in a military drill off the coast near Fuzhou, Fujian Province, across from the Taiwan-controlled Matsu Islands on April 11. Photo: Reuters

UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly attends a meeting in London on Tuesday. Photo: PA Wire via dpa

Taiwan welcomes renewed US, Philippines commitment to regional security

Taiwan says a US-Philippines joint statement on security underscores the “consensus from countries in the region to uphold cross-strait peace and stability”. Photo: EPA-EFE

UK official Dominic Johnson’s visit shows Hong Kong values cooperation, John Lee says, but warns of ‘certain countries’ acting to ‘serve political interests’

UK official Dominic Johnson (right) meets Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury Christopher Hui. Photo: Handout 

Chief Executive John Lee. Photo: Sam Tsang

Dominic Johnson (left) meets Victor Li and Canning Fok. Photo: Handout 

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The United Kingdom is renewing efforts to reach out to Hong Kong and Beijing. Photo: AFP

(From left) Dominic Johnson meets Victor Li and Canning Fok of CK Hutchinson. Photo: Twitter/@DBTInvestment

Johnson also met Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury Christopher Hui on Monday. Photo: Handout

News

China

Diplomacy

Truss will make a speech on threats to the island at the Prospect Foundation, a think tank sanctioned by Beijing
The trip coincides with efforts by Sunak to re-engage mainland China


Truss will make a speech on threats to the island at the Prospect Foundation, a think tank sanctioned by Beijing.


China headache or help for Rishi Sunak? Former British PM Liz Truss to visit Taiwan

Truss will make a speech on threats to the island at the Prospect Foundation, a think tank sanctioned by Beijing The trip coincides with efforts by Sunak to re-engage mainland China

Truss will make a speech on threats to the island at the Prospect Foundation, a think tank sanctioned by Beijing

The trip coincides with efforts by Sunak to re-engage mainland China