The fact that Liz Truss has been called “demented” by the former Australian PM Paul Keating, needs to be taken with a great big pinch of salt.
The Sinophile ex PM was criticising the British foreign secretary’s sensible comments that unchecked aggression in the Ukraine could also encourage similar action by China against Taiwan.
But his wider point that the UK has delusions of grandeur in the Asia Pacific region are accurate. The UK has little, if any, influence or power in this area.
The Chinese Navy is now the largest in the world with 360 vessels, the US keeps 5 of its 11 aircraft carriers in the Pacific and the UK has, I think, two patrol vessels there.
A recent Select Committee report found the RN did not have enough ships for its current roles, let alone an East of Suez policy.
So some history. In 1945 having won the war in Europe the RN re-deployed against Japan. The USN didn’t really want it in the area, not least because the US suspected the Royal Navy was only in its “pond” to reclaim the Empire. Also even then the British were incapable of properly supplying their fleet, which was forced to beg and borrow equipment from the USN.
When the RN asked for a new fighter to replace a lost one, the local US Navy commander refused but only on the grounds that his fleet only dealt in 1/2 dozens and so sent 6.
Typical American generosity but also a sign that the RN was no longer fully capable of operating independently at that range. 77 years on and things are much worse.
The UK’s so called tilt to the Pacific is an act of Brexit vanity and fantastic self delusion, dangerously over ambitious and seen by many of even its allies as desperate, pathetic and delusional.
Economics, trade and Brexit, not necessarily in that order but the dog always comes first.