Would Liz Truss’s ‘economic Nato’ work against China?

It was only a few weeks ago that Liz Truss started commenting on domestic policy again, speaking to The Spectator not just about what happened during her time in No. 10, but about what she sees as prescriptions for Britain’s stagnant economy. Today she weighs back in on foreign policy.

In Tokyo this morning, the former prime minister made her first international speech since leaving office and it combined her favourite topics: economic freedom and taking a tough stance on China. Truss is calling for world leaders to band together and create an ‘economic Nato’ – which would include agreeing to a tough package of economic sanctions on China, were President Xi to make aggressive movements against Taiwan.

This is not the first time Truss has presented this kind of idea. When she was serving as foreign secretary under Boris Johnson, she coined the phrase ‘network of liberty’, which promoted a similar idea of creating an alliance of ‘free and democratic nations’ to make headway on the ‘battle for economic influence’.