TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson published an op-ed extolling Taiwan’s determination to resist China’s authoritarianism.

In his column in the Daily Mail, Johnson recounted his August visit to Taiwan, where he spoke at the Ketagalan Forum in Taipei. He described how young Taiwanese in the audience expressed their willingness to fight in the event of a Chinese attack.

“The actual Chinese claim to Taiwan is of no merit whatever,” Johnson wrote, before briefly reviewing Taiwan’s political history under foreign powers. He said Taiwan’s struggle to democratize in the late 20th century is “one of the reasons why the Taiwanese are so utterly determined not to become another province of communist China.”

Johnson also stressed Taiwan’s geopolitical importance in relation to artificial intelligence, which he called the “most important and valuable technology of the 21st century.” He warned that the toppling of Taiwan’s democratic government by the Chinese Communist Party would be an “absolute strategic disaster for the West.”

He highlighted the threats Chinese leader Xi Jinping has made toward Taiwan and cited Beijing’s broken promises to Britain and Hong Kong. Hong Kong’s recent experience, he said, is a major reason why the Taiwanese know they cannot trust assurances from the CCP.

Johnson closed by saying he hopes Xi will learn from Russia’s experience in Ukraine. If war breaks out over Taiwan, he concluded, he “doubts very much they will be on their own.”