Liz Truss warns that if China doesn’t follow global rules, it will cut short its rise as a superpower
London:
One of Britain’s most vocal critics of China became prime minister on Tuesday when Liz Truss, a defender of the postwar Western world order, replaced Boris Johnson, whose policy Beijing isn’t fast enough for many in his party.
Relations between London and Beijing have soured over the past decade as Britain grows increasingly concerned that opening up to Chinese investment could pose a national security risk and economic assertiveness. China’s economic and military capabilities could run counter to its post-Brexit free trade agenda.
Truss sees China as a threat to the rules-based international order that dominated trade and diplomacy after World War II, and she sees it as her role to build a bulwark against that.
“Countries must play by the rules of the game and that includes China,” she said in a high-profile speech earlier this year, adding that Beijing is “rapidly building up a military capable of penetrating deep.” power into areas of strategic European interest”.
Truss warned that if China did not follow global rules, it would cut short its rise as a superpower and that it should learn from the West’s strong economic response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. .
She said that China’s rise was not inevitable and that the West should ensure that Taiwan, which Beijing says is its own territory, can defend itself.
The Global Times, published by the official newspaper of the Communist Party of China, the People’s Daily, called Truss a “radical populist” and said she should remove the “psychological obsolete empire”.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning on Tuesday said she hoped relations with Britain would “go in the right direction”.
James Rogers, co-founder of the London-based Geostrategy Research Council, said Truss would impose more restrictions on China’s acquisitions of British companies and would do more to tie up countries. together to counter the rise of China.
“She understands how short-term economic interests can have long-term strategic and political implications, and will try to balance those interests more effectively than in the past,” he said.
‘BIGGEST TYPE’
Under Prime Minister David Cameron, Britain and China forged what he called a “golden era” of relations. He said in 2015 he wanted to be Beijing’s best friend in the West.
But in the past seven years, with three changes of prime minister coupled with growing criticism of Beijing’s commercial practices and a host of freedoms in Hong Kong and Xingang, Britain has moved from a position of China’s largest household in Europe has become one of the country’s harshest critics.
The Conservatives have become more hostile to China even as Johnson calls himself a “zealous Chinese”.
The government has recently moved to limit China’s participation in the UK’s nuclear power sector. Truss has also signed a defense pact providing Australia with nuclear submarine-building technology to help counter China’s growing power and influence.
Last year as Trade Secretary, Truss warned that the West could lose control of global trade unless it gets tough on Beijing and pushes for reform of the World Trade Organization.
“If we don’t act, we risk fragmenting global trade under the domination of the biggest,” she said.
In late 2021, she persuaded G7 foreign ministers to include a line in their closing communique condemning China’s economic policies – a reference to Beijing’s global investment policies that critics say. that could trap poorer countries in debt traps.
Truss is expected to appoint a foreign secretary in line with her world view – with ally James Cleverly said to be the right fit for the job and backed by Tom Tugendhat, a celebrity in China. , as security minister.
Charles Parton, a former UK diplomat who spent 22 years analyzing China and is now a fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, said despite China’s capabilities threatens to withdraw investment, but this is unlikely to happen.
“China is not a charity. It doesn’t invest because it likes our eye color. It does it for very specific reasons,” he said. “It’s going to continue to invest, and it’s our job to see if that investment continues to align with our interests.”
(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a collaborative feed.)
