We have said this earlier as well and we will say this again. All these politicians, from past and present, who are either planning to visit Taiwan or have visited Taiwan are all doing it in order to boost their political career even further. This is because currently supporting Taiwan is seen as something not many would dare to do against China and this is the reason why leaders of the opposition would visit Taiwan and show their support and gain sympathy from the public over their support to the “weaker nation”. Now, the same is happening in the case of UK’s Prime Minister for less than a month, Liz Truss.
Liz Truss is planning to visit Taiwan in the next few days and we had already mentioned how her visit to Taiwan stands opposite to the stance from UK Government which wants to do trade with China and does not recognize Taiwan as a separate nation right now. UK’s conservative chair of foreign affairs select committee, Alicia Kearns, has launched an attack on Liz Truss saying that she is doing the “worst kind of Instagram diplomacy” with her planned visit to Taiwan.
“It is deeply unhelpful because it escalates the normal situation in Taiwan,” Kearns said. “Taiwanese people already have to live with more Chinese military manoeuvres because of Nancy Pelosi’s visit. Liz Truss doesn’t have any influence any more – this is more about keeping herself relevant.”
On this, Liz Truss’ office released a statement saying that “The former prime minister has been invited to visit by the Taiwan government. They are better placed to know what is in the interests of the Taiwanese people than the MP for Rutland. The future of Taiwan as a free democracy is at stake. Alicia Kearns should apologize for misusing her position as a select committee chair to engage in petty political attacks”. Also, the UK Government has completely left Liz Truss hanging on her planned visit as they released a statement saying that they are not going to comment on “independent travel decisions of a private citizen who is not a member of the government”.
