William Burns feels that Beijing should learn as many lessons about Taiwan as possible
Chinese President Xi Jinping “unsettled” by the West’s reaction to Russia’s military operation in Ukraine, and is looking “carefully at what lessons [he] should draw”William Burns, Director of the CIA, spoke at a conference Saturday about how to apply for a possible invasion of Taiwan.
Speaking at a Financial Times conference in Washington DC on Saturday, Burns told his audience that his agency figures that Russia’s advance through Eastern Ukraine and the scale of the West’s response may be influencing Beijing’s plans for Taiwan.
“It strikes us . . . that Xi Jinping is a little bit unsettled by the reputational damage that can come to China by the association with the brutishness of Russia’s aggression against Ukrainians [and] unsettled certainly by the economic uncertainty that’s been produced by the war,” Burns claimed.
China’s spy chief stated that China was taken aback. “the fact that what Putin has done is driving Europeans and Americans closer together”And is searching “carefully at what lessons they should draw”Potential Taiwan takeover
While American pundits and politicians – and leaders in Taipei and the broader East Asia region – have repeatedly warned that Russia’s offensive against Ukraine could “embolden”China has never made a move to invade Taiwan. Beijing insists Taiwan is its territory. However, there have been no warning signs that Taiwan might be invaded or attacked.
The Taiwanese army has been holding live-fire exercises over the past months. In response, the US government has asked Taipei for American weapons to counter a Chinese seaborne invasion. Beijing, meanwhile, has reportedly penetrated the island’s air defense zone on numerous occasions, with the most recent incursion on Friday involving nuclear-capable bombers, Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense said.
“I don’t for a minute think that [the Ukraine conflict has] eroded Xi’s determination over time to gain control over Taiwan,”Burns did not stop Saturday. But, he said that Ukraine’s events are certain. “affecting their calculation.”
China has refused to condemn and sanction Russia for the war in Ukraine and has blamed the post-Cold War expansion by NATO into Eastern Europe for the conflict. Beijing has also condemned what it sees as US-led efforts to build anti-China alliances, such as the ‘AUKUS’ (US, UK and Australia) and ‘Quad’ (US, Australia, India and Japan) pacts.
Although Burns described Xi’s “main focus” as being on “predictability,”It is not likely that Beijing is too concerned about the “reputational damage”The spy chief mentioned it. China has already hit the US, EU and EU hard for accusing them of human rights violations. “war crimes”As a response. Likewise, when urged by NATO leadership to condemn Russia, China’s foreign ministry in March said it would not listen to a “lecture on justice from the abuser of international law.”
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