April 29, 2022

Liz Truss, UK Foreign Secretary, delivered what the Financial Times described as a "hawkish set-piece" speech at a banquet in London on Wednesday. Her target was China. She said "NATO must have a global outlook," and "needs to preempt threats in the Indo-Pacific." Then she bluntly pointed out that they "must ensure that democracies like Taiwan are able to defend themselves." It's fair to say that Truss' remarks are the most blatant and ambitious statements among those made by US and Western politicians for a while about "the globalization of NATO." 

It's reported that Truss' remarks came as NATO members were discussing the bloc's new "strategic concept." There is a fierce debate among NATO countries over how much emphasis should be placed on the "security threat" posed by China in the Indo-Pacific region. On the same day, the US Indo-Pacific Commander said that NATO is a "pretty good model" for the Indo-Pacific region, for those nations that value freedom. People have become very familiar with such pattern of the US and the UK echoing each other. 

Since the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, some politicians in the US and the West have been constantly distorting facts, deliberately linking the Russia-Ukraine conflict to the Taiwan question in an attempt to play the "Taiwan card" to contain China. Truss took advantage of the Ukraine crisis to hype the "China threat" as early as before the conflict broke out. She "warned" that China could use the Russia-Ukraine conflict as an opportunity to launch aggression of its own in the Indo-Pacific. Even former Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating harshly criticized her as being "demented" and suffering "illusions of grandeur."  

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