Former British Prime Minister and current Conservative MP Liz Truss arrived in Taiwan today for a visit that will last until Saturday and include meetings with political, business and academic representatives, said the Taiwanese agency CNA.
Truss was received at Taoyuan airport by Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Joseph Wu, who wrote on the Twitter social network that Truss’ “continuous support” of “Taiwanese democracy and stability across the Taiwan Strait” is “positively valued” by the authorities and population of the territory.
The former prime minister thanked the “warm reception” on the same social network and assured that it is “great” to be in Taiwan.
During his stay, Truss will give a lecture entitled “Taiwan: at the forefront of freedom and democracy” and will meet with senior government officials and figures from business and academic circles, Taiwan’s foreign ministry said. in a statement.
To date, there is no official information about a possible meeting with the leader of the island, Tsai Ing-wen.
Last week, London distanced itself from Truss’s trip to Taiwan, with whom the UK has no diplomatic relations: “As a Member of Parliament and a private citizen, Liz Truss is free to travel wherever she wants,” said an Executive spokeswoman. British.
In a message posted on her Twitter account, the former leader of the Conservative Party was “grateful” for the invitation made by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Taiwan and considered that “we must all do what we can to support the Government democratically elected from Taiwan and the Taiwanese”.
The Chinese press has criticized Truss’s trip in recent hours: analysts quoted by the Global Times newspaper assured that the visit “will not bring any substantial benefit to the island”. Based on information disseminated by the British press, the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party said that Truss will receive tens of thousands of pounds for his lecture.
At the end of World War II, Taiwan became part of the Republic of China under the nationalist government of Chiang Kai-shek.
After the defeat against the Communist Party, in the Chinese Civil War, in 1949, the Nationalist Government took refuge on the island, which maintains, until today, the official name of Republic of China, in opposition to the People’s Republic of China, on the mainland. Chinese, communist.
The territory carried out democratic reforms in the 1990s and is now one of the most vibrant democracies in East Asia.
Beijing considers the island part of its territory and threatens reunification through force if Taipei formally declares independence.
