Liz Truss is in Taiwan this week, urging the West to take a stronger stance against China. Her message is clear: Europe’s future is ‘inextricably linked’ to that of the island, you can’t trust Beijing to follow the rules and Britain and its allies must now take action.
Citing Chinese naval expansion, military build-up, economic decoupling and diplomatic initiatives, Truss warned that ‘There are those who say they don’t want another Cold War. But this is not a choice we are in a position to make… they have already made a choice about their strategy. The only choice we have is whether we appease and accommodate – or we take action to prevent conflict.’
Her solution? An ‘economic Nato’ where like-minded nations agree to make trade and investment decisions in a way that supports freedom. This would resemble the Coordinating Committee for Multilateral Export Controls which focused on how the West collectively dealt with the USSR from the 1940s until the 1990s.
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