TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Former U.K. Prime Minister Liz Truss is expected to call on her government to use "hard power" to deter China from invading Taiwan when she delivers a speech in Taiwan this week.

Truss will visit Taiwan from May 16-20 and, during a speech at the Prospect Foundation on Wednesday (May 17), is expected to say Taiwan is at the "frontline of the global battle for freedom," reported the Express. Truss will urge increased solidarity with Taiwan as she accuses the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) of engaging in an “ideological struggle with the free world.”

She will reportedly push current Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to back Taiwan's admission to the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). She is planning to say that she is visiting Taiwan because "I believe this is the most consequential place in the world – in the most consequential struggle of our time.”

Truss will describe the ideological struggle between the CCP and the free world as a "battle of ideas as much as it is an attempt to grab power on the global stage." Given that the U.K. has joined the CPTPP, she will argue that Taiwan's membership should be fast-tracked, while it is "vital" that Beijing is permanently blocked from membership in the group.

As for preventing a Chinese invasion of Taiwan, Truss will reportedly say that, "We cannot pretend there can be meaningful deterrence without hard power." She will add that if the West is serious about staving off a war in the South China Sea, "we need to get real about military and defense cooperation…"

She is also expected to press for more inclusion of Taiwan in policy decisions that affect the country by elevating the status of its representative offices to enable more direct discussions with world leaders.