The last former British prime minister to visit Taiwan was Ms. Truss’s political idol, Margaret Thatcher, in 1992. Taiwan was willing to look past contention in Britain over Ms. Truss, said Chen Fang-yu, an assistant politics professor at Soochow University in Taipei.
“Taiwan really needs more of this kind of attention from every country, because only if more people visit Taiwan and more speak up for Taiwan, will the Chinese Communist Party realize that many people are paying attention to Taiwan, and so they should not act rashly,” he said in an interview.
This week, Taiwan also launched a push for international support to rejoin the World Health Organization and attend the World Health Assembly that opens on Sunday. Taiwan was an observer in the organization from 2009 to 2016, but China blocked its participation after Ms. Tsai was elected president.
And on Thursday, the Biden administration emphasized U.S. support for Taiwan by announcing that it had concluded its first agreement under a trade initiative begun last year. The agreement will reduce red tape for firms shipping goods between the two sides and promote trade by small businesses.
Ms. Truss’s trip has also come as Taiwan is preparing to hold a presidential election in January, when voters will choose a successor for Ms. Tsai, who must step down.
On Thursday, Ms. Truss met Lai Ching-te, the vice president of Taiwan, who is the presidential candidate of Ms. Tsai’s Democratic Progressive Party. That party favors asserting Taiwan’s separateness from China, and its formal platform calls for establishing Taiwan “as a sovereign, independent and autonomous nation,” a goal that is anathema to Beijing. Mr. Lai used his meeting with Ms. Truss on Thursday to amplify that message of standing tall against Chinese pressure.
But Alexander C. Huang, a professor at Tamkang University in Taipei who advises Taiwan’s opposition Nationalist Party, said that the Nationalists would also welcome visitors like Ms. Truss. The Nationalists maintain that they can create more stable relations with China, while keeping Taiwan close to the United States and its allies. The Nationalists anointed their candidate for the presidency, Hou Yu-ih, this week.
“Taiwan has no influence over the domestic issues of a friendly country,” Mr. Huang said, referring to Britain. “We just want to have more international attention and visibility.”
John Liu contributed reporting from Seoul.
