During a portion of an interview with CBS News aired on Monday’s edition of “CBS Evening News,” CIA Director William Burns stated that, in the CIA’s assessment, due to Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s instructions to his military to be prepared to invade Taiwan by no later than 2027, the further we get into the 2020s, the “the greater the risks rise of a potential conflict” between Taiwan and China.
Burns stated that while “Xi is watching what’s happening in Ukraine like a hawk,” Xi has been “sobered, to some extent” by the weak performance of Russia’s military in the war in Ukraine, and this “could” sober Xi’s ambitions with regards to Taiwan, “Xi insists today, that while he is firmly committed to unification — in other words, to achieving control over Taiwan — that his preference is to pursue means to achieve that short of the use of force. But he’s also instructed his military, we know, to be prepared, no later than 2027, to conduct a successful invasion of Taiwan. So, the reality, at least as we see it, is that the further you get into this decade, the greater the risks rise of a potential conflict.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett