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Stella Chen

The United Kingdom will soon have its third prime minister in two months.
On Thursday, speaking outside 10 Downing Street in London, Liz Truss said she could not deliver the mandate she was given when she was chosen by her party to replace Boris Johnson as prime minister.
Her departure, on the heels of a botched economic plan, kicked off a new contest for the next Conservative Party leader and British prime minister.
Truss’ resignation – after just six weeks on the job – makes her the shortest-serving prime minister in British history.
It is the latest in a series of political events that have rocked the country and seen the departures of several top ministers over the past few months. Amid the political mayhem, Britons are bracing as the country slides into recession while inflation soars.


Truss’ resignation came in the midst of the Chinese Communist Party’s week-long national congress, a twice-a-decade political reshuffle that is expected to see President Xi Jinping secure an unprecedented third term as the country’s leader.
In China, the political turbulence is being viewed through a narrative that Beijing has been constructing for years – and could be perfectly timed for Xi as he trumpets the virtues of the country’s one-party rule.
“China, under great rule and discipline, is stable, compared to Western democracy, which is chaotic,” Xi first said several years ago.
Wang Yiwei, a Renmin University professor who specialises in European studies, said the collapse of the Truss government reflected China’s competence in leadership and showed the importance of having a centralised administration to lead the country.
“A lack of a proper leader and sense of responsibility in political parties and among the political elite allow such governments to ignore economic problems and other pressing issues. This is the reason for Truss’ downfall,” Wang said.
During a Politburo study session in February, Xi said the Western promotion of democracy caused wars, chaos and human displacement around the world, and that some Western countries “forcibly promote the concept and systems of Western democracy and human rights issues to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries”.
Chinese officials have also been seizing on Xi’s “once-in-a-century changes” to highlight growing political uncertainties as they promote Chinese-style democracy and human rights protection, while suggesting that Western democracy has done little for the well-being of most people.
During an annual legislative meeting in March, Xi told a group of political advisers that China’s political and governance system had shown remarkable superiority in dealing with the pandemic and fighting poverty, adding that there was growing contrast between “China’s orderly rule” and the “West’s chaos”.




Britain’s latest turmoil sparked plenty of online discussion by Chinese people.
“Another short-serving leader. We have won over Britain and America in this sense,” said one mainland commenter.
“Easy come easy go. What a convenient democratic system,” said another.
Another poster said: “Be nice to her please. She has done us no bad. She did not even have time to declare China a threat.”
Chinese state media hinted at Truss’ weaknesses as it reported on her resignation. Beijing Daily, an official Communist Party newspaper, questioned Truss’ competence in economics and politics, asking whether she was the third “Iron Lady”, or simply a “Paper Lady”.
“With the current internal turnover of the Conservative Party, a sort of ‘black hole’ may be forming in British politics, which is very bad for the future of Britain itself,” Beijing Daily said.




But Chong Ja Ian, an associate professor at National University of Singapore’s political science department, cautioned that Beijing’s efforts to sway opinion might only work on less-informed people.
“Not too long ago, we had a Chinese consul general who allegedly beat up a peaceful protester in Manchester, UK. So any kind of commentary coming from China or its state media might backfire on China-UK relations and the UK public,” Chong said.
He added that if Beijing tried to use the UK political turmoil to illustrate that such chaos was the norm in Western democracy, it would ring hollow more than anything else, since democracy came in many forms.
Additional reporting by Liu Zhen


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The timing of British Prime Minister Liz Truss’s resignation may play into the hands of China’s Communist Party during its national congress. Photo: AFP

Liz Truss forced out as Britain’s prime minister after just 6 weeks

Liz Truss is the shortest serving prime minister in modern British history. Photo: Reuters

Rishi Sunak, the former chancellor, is one of several candidates who could emerge in the latest leadership contest. Photo: AP

Some MPs even called for recently deposed Boris Johnson to return as PM, and he is expected to run for the Conservative Party leadership once more. Photo: AFP

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Pro-democracy protesters taking part in a demonstration outside the Chinese consulate in Manchester. Photo: AFP

A man is pulled at the gate of the Chinese consulate in Manchester during a demonstration. Photo: Reuters

The Chinese consulate in Manchester. Photo: AP

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China

Politics


As the UK’s battered image takes another hit, the timing of Liz Truss’ resignation may boost China’s narrative promoting one-party rule
Latest mayhem comes as China’s Communist Party holds its all-important national congress



As the UK’s battered image takes another hit with Liz Truss’ resignation, the timing may play into China’s narrative promoting Xi Jinping’s rule.


China-UK relations