UK truss warns of Western ‘weakness’ on China after Macron visit

LONDON — Former UK Prime Minister Liz Truss is taking a not-so-subtle jab at Emmanuel Macron over his attempt to build bridges with Beijing.

In a speech Wednesday morning to the Heritage Foundation think tank in Washington, DC, Truss will argue that too many in the West have “appeased and accommodated” authoritarian regimes in China and Russia.

And she will say it is a “sign of weakness” for Western leaders to visit China and ask Prime Minister Xi Jinping for his support after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, just days after Macron’s high-profile trip there.

While Truss, who left office after only six weeks as crisis-hit UK PM: She won’t mention Macron by name, her comments follow a interview with POLITICO in which the French president said Europe should resist pressure to become “followers of the United States.”

Macron said: “The question that Europeans must answer… are we interested in accelerating (a crisis) in Taiwan? No. The worst thing would be to think that we Europeans should become followers on this issue and follow the lead of the American agenda and an overreaction from China.”

Macron has already been criticized for those comments by the IPAC group of skeptical China lawmakers, which said monday his comments were “misjudged”.

And Truss, who had an icy relationship with Macron during his brief term in office last year, he will use his speech to urge a more aggressive stance toward China and Russia.

“We have seen Vladimir Putin launch an unprovoked attack on a free and democratic neighbor, we have seen the Chinese hoard their weapons and arsenal and threaten free and democratic Taiwan,” Truss will say, according to previously published remarks. “Too many in the West have appeased and accommodated these regimes.”

She will add: “Western leaders visiting President Xi to ask for his support in ending the war is wrong, and it is a sign of weakness. Instead, our energies should be devoted to taking more steps to support Taiwan. We need to make sure Taiwan can defend itself.”

Relations between Macron and Truss’s successor, Rishi Sunak, have been noticeably warmer. The pair acclaimed a “new chapter” in UK-France ties in March, after concluding a deal on cross-Channel migration.