There are few spectacles more pathetic than a political has-been craving for attention long after their sell-by date.
Some of Britain’s former prime ministers, for example, have refused to adjust to changed circumstances, and have badly let themselves down. Thus, Edward Heath (1970-74), having been rejected by the electorate, indulged in the “longest sulk in history”, and spent years mindlessly criticizing his successor, Margaret Thatcher (1979-1990). Her successor, John Major (1990-1997), when not dissing Boris Johnson (2019-2022), did all he could to thwart the decision by the British people to leave the European Union.
While Tony Blair (1997-2007), when not defending his Iraq war blunders, has devoted himself to promoting his global brand and making money, Boris Johnson, when not denying he misled Parliament over “Partygate”, is raking in cash on the lecture circuit, reportedly receiving 2.5 million pounds ($3.1 million) as an advance for speeches in the six months since he left office.
It is, however, Liz Truss, prime minister for only 49 days in 2022 (the country’s shortest-ever tenure), who, when it comes to self-debasement, is in a class of her own. Since her fall, she has resorted to global troublemaking to attract attention, and her antics suggest a desperate attempt to rehabilitate her lamentable legacy by fair means or foul.
Although prime ministers invariably achieve something while in office, Truss is a notable exception. She resigned in disgrace, having been destroyed by her own mind-boggling incompetence. She trashed the economy, undermined living standards and devalued sterling, and greatly damaged the ruling Conservative Party, something her successor, Rishi Sunak, is now struggling to reverse.
The opposition Labour Party is currently the odds-on favorite to win next year’s general election, and this is largely down to Truss. Even before she messed up as prime minister, she showed herself to be an incompetent foreign secretary (not knowing, for example, on a Moscow visit, which regions were part of the Russian Federation and which were not), and a disastrous justice secretary (failing, for example, to protect the judiciary, to its enduring fury, from media allegations it was an “enemy of the people”, after it delivered a controversial Brexit judgment).
Having forfeited public confidence, the least Truss could have done was show some humility and withdraw from public life. However, like a bad smell, she refuses to go away, and is even seeking to trade on her notoriety, by stoking anti-China sentiments. In 2022, when she contested the Conservative Party’s leadership, she also played the “China card” for all it was worth, maligning Beijing at every opportunity and calling for China to be designated as a “threat” to national security. Although this played well with party hardliners, it boded ill for Global Britain, and Sunak is now seeking to repair the harm she caused.
In a cynical stab at career revival, Truss is traveling around the world, whipping up scare stories about China and calling for an “economic NATO”. It seems there is no depth to which she will not sink, and she is more than happy, like the US, which may be manipulating her, to aggravate regional tensions in the Far East.
In February, for example, Truss rabbited away in Tokyo, to the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC), about confronting “the rise of a totalitarian China”, and then followed this up in April, with a call, to the Heritage Foundation, in Washington DC, for the West to take a tougher stand against China (even condemning the recent visit to China by the French president, Emmanuel Macron, as a “mistake” and a “sign of weakness”).
In another of her legendary soundbites, Truss told the Heritage Foundation “we need to be intolerant of intolerance”, which was bizarre coming from one of Britain’s most infamous bigots.
Emboldened by the receptions she received from the alt-right in Japan and the US, Truss, on May 9, announced that she plans to visit Taipei later this month. She says she wants to show “solidarity with the Taiwanese people in person in the face of increasingly aggressive behavior and rhetoric from the regime in Beijing”. Truss, who once planned to supply weapons to Taiwan, intends to meet the island’s leaders, and she will undoubtedly do all she can to poison cross-Strait relations and build herself up, irrespective of any possible consequences.
Whereas the UK has been trying recently to avoid mindless provocations of this type, the foreign office distanced itself from Truss’ grandstanding. Its spokesman explained, “We wouldn’t get involved in the independent travel decisions of a private citizen who is not a member of the government”, which could not be clearer. The UK is not interested in Truss’ antics, not least because she is now a national embarrassment.
On May 11, moreover, the chair of the House of Commons’ foreign affairs select committee, Alicia Kearns, denounced Truss for a “vanity project” aimed at keeping her profile high after her brief prime ministership. She described Truss’ trip as “the worst kind of example of Instagram diplomacy”, adding that it “is deeply unhelpful because it escalates the normal situation in Taiwan”. She also pointed out that “Truss doesn’t have any influence any more — this is more about keeping herself relevant”, which was absolutely spot on.
Anybody wishing to understand Truss must appreciate that she is, first and foremost, an opportunist. Her policies change to suit her career, and she has never allowed principles to get in the way of her soaring ambition which, sadly, has consistently outstripped her ability. Although, for example, she was a republican while a member of the Liberal Democrats, she became a royalist once she switched to the Conservative Party, realizing an anti-monarchist would never be chosen as one of its parliamentary candidates.
In 2016, moreover, when the pro-remain prime minister, David Cameron, called the referendum on the UK’s membership of the European Union, he had no bigger supporter than Truss. She announced, “I am backing remain as I believe it is in Britain’s economic interest and means we can focus on vital economic and social reform at home.” Although this must have delighted Cameron, her pro-EU credentials were only ever skin deep.
Once the referendum result was announced, Truss, ever the careerist, re-invented herself as a diehard Brexiteer. Indeed, the success of her volte-face became apparent in 2022 when the powerful anti-EU factions coalesced around her candidacy during the Conservative Party’s leadership contest.
When, moreover, Cameron appointed her his environment secretary in 2014, there was no more fervid backer of his “golden era” China policy than Truss. In 2015, having previously, as an education minister, visited Shanghai to study its education system (over which she waxed lyrical), she went to Beijing to develop trade links, announcing “I am delighted to visit China, a key global player for the UK.”
She signed a memorandum of understanding with her Chinese counterparts, designed to “identify trading opportunities”, and declared how keen she was “to build real collaboration in areas that are complementary to our two economies”. After the visit, it was announced that 800 million pounds of new business for the UK had been “unlocked” for which Truss claimed credit.
Once, however, Cameron resigned and the UK left the EU, and British foreign policy, thanks to Boris Johnson, was hijacked by the US, Truss did her familiar chameleon act. By becoming a China critic, she garnered the support she needed to become prime minister. Although she lost the job after seven weeks, she is still desperate to remain relevant, and this is why she is again flogging the anti-China horse for all it is worth.
It now appears that Truss, egged on by the likes of IPAC and the Heritage Foundation, wants to emulate the former US House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, whose visit to Taipei in 2022 was so controversial. The problem she faces, however, is that, by comparison with Pelosi, she is a political pygmy and can bring nothing to the table.
Truss is a failed politician with a bankrupt agenda, and nobody in their right mind should take her seriously. Her shenanigans cannot be allowed to imperil the UK’s national interest, which is inextricably tied to harmonious relations with China. Even if Taiwan’s leader, Tsai Ing-wen, rolls out the red carpet and gives her a medal (as is her wont), she remains a global laughingstock.
If, moreover, Truss is the best the West’s provocateurs can come up with, there is very little for anybody to concern themselves over. There are, after all, few things quite so broken as a busted flush.
The author is a senior counsel and law professor, and was previously the director of public prosecutions of the Hong Kong SAR.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.