LIZ Truss today warns Britain must pull back the red carpet rolled out for China.
The former PM is urging Western allies to toughen up their stance towards the rogue nation.
Liz Truss today warns Britain must pull back the red carpet rolled out for China
She was poised to re-designate China as a “threat” before her time in office was cut short.
Speaking in Japan early today, she was due to say: “Some people say standing up to this regime is a hopeless task — that somehow the rise of a totalitarian China is inevitable.
“I reject this fatalism. The free world has a significant role to play in whether that happens, and how it happens.”
She is also set to criticise former PM David Cameron’s attempt to forge a “golden era” of UK-China relations.
President Xi was afforded a State Visit in 2015 which included a banquet at Buckingham Palace.
Truss says: “We rolled out the red carpet with all the pomp and ceremony. Looking back, I think this sent the wrong message.”
Ms Truss was addressing the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China conference just weeks before a strategic review of UK enemies is published.
Tory MPs are pushing PM Rishi Sunak to take a tougher stance.
In her speech in Tokyo, Ms Truss adds: “The free world is in danger. We are living in turbulent economic times and have faced severe shocks, from the financial crisis to the Covid pandemic.
“We have less of the world’s population living in democracies than . . . 30 years ago.”
She will also urge G7 leaders to agree sanctions should China attempt further military action around Taiwan.
Meanwhile, ex-Chancellor Philip Hammond wrote in the Communist Party-run China Daily to call for closer trading ties with Beijing.
