Liz Truss: Ex-PM to join global campaign to put pressure on China

Former Prime Minister Liz Truss is to join an international campaign to put pressure on China over its human rights record and economic coercion against smaller countries.

Ms Truss will address a conference of global politicians in Japan this month designed to coordinate the policies of democratic governments towards Beijing.

Since she resigned in October, Ms Truss has kept a low profile.

But recently her allies have formed a group to push her low-tax agenda.

Members of the Conservative Growth Group include former ministers Simon Clarke and Ranil Jayawardena, who both served in Ms Truss's cabinet.

Ms Truss resigned after just 45 days in office, following the economic turmoil of her mini-budget.

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In December the former prime minister met like-minded Republicans during a trip to Washington.

However, her speech to the conference in Japan will be her first public outing overseas since leaving office.

The conference is organised by the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, which seeks to coordinate international pressure on Beijing.

The cross-party group of politicians works on issues including upholding human rights and promoting trade fairness.

In her speech, Ms Truss is expected to focus on the threat to Taiwan.

She will also be joined by two other former prime ministers - Scott Morrison of Australia and Guy Verhofstadt of Belgium.

Diplomats will watch closely to see if Ms Truss adopts a harder line than her former government, which still hopes to cooperate with China on climate change and trade.

In November, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the so-called "golden era" of relations with China was over and that the closer economic ties of the previous decade had been "naïve".

But he stressed "we cannot simply ignore China's significance in world affairs - to global economic stability or issues like climate change".

Ms Truss's predecessor as prime minister, Boris Johnson, has also re-emerged on the global stage since leaving office.

Last month, he visited Kyiv, where he met President Volodymyr Zelensky and other Ukrainian ministers.